[TowerTalk] Wire size

[Ed Juge]

Hi, Nate...

My best guess is there won't be any noticeable difference by increasing the 
wire size.  I used #30 or so, and expect it to survive me.  If you want to 
get a better ground system, go with more radials.  I've always considered 
16 to be a minimum.  If I remember a chart on ground resistance vs number 
of radials that I saw in one of the text books, the resistance of 16 
radials was around 10 ohms vs .5 ohms for 90 radials.

According to Hy-Gain's manual on my Hy-Tower, the "Power gain in db due to 
increased efficiency) with 16 radials is 3db.  For 90 it's 5.2db and for 
120, 6db.  As the number of radials increase, they advise making them 
longer, too.  For me, that last 3db just wasn't worth the effort in our 
rocky ground where the trench for each radial must be dug by hand, an inch 
at a time.

Good luck...

Ed

   At 07:17 AM 10/18/99 -0400, N. S. FIRESTONE wrote:

>Is there any theoretical or, more importantly, practical difference in
>the performance of a vertical antenna using "skinny" buried radials.
>If I planned to use ten radials of #16 bare copper and then decided to go
>with 4/0 bare copper instead of the #16, was the money difference well
>spent?
>Ignoring the chemical/mechanical survivability of the heavier wire would
>the RF care?
>
>73 de Nate, W3SVJ, in Pittsburgh where it's not so smokey anymore.
>
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-------------------------------------------
Ed Juge
phone: 817.291.0733
email:  ed_juge@zianet.com
======================

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