[TowerTalk] re: Power Meters and radials on 4-SQR's

[Dinsterdog@aol.com]

I use Radio Shack 21-534 meters.  They are inexpensive, around $39 bucks-  
but seem to work well-  they can be set to measure SWR and Power and are 
designed to measure power for 3-30MHz.  The scale settings are for 20W, 200W 
and 2,000W.  I have three of them in use they've all worked well-

As for the radial question on dipoles for 4-SQR's,  I think I'm just going to 
lay down a decent ground screen of around 120 to 200 thirty foot radials 
below the tower where my 1/2 wave K8UR array sits- that should do it- 
although the idea of just laying down 10-12 radials parallel to the dipoles 
sounds a lot easier- but I don't think you can over kill on radials- hi-

Since the bottom of my dipoles are tied just a few above the ground to the 
tower, I think I'll get maximum results vs a horizontal dipole strung out 
between trees etc......but the concept is a bit confusing-

On my ground mounted verticals in my 80 meter array, the radials are tied to 
the coax ground braid-, which are all connected at the base of the vertical-  
With the radials on the dipole array,  the feedlines to the dipoles are 1/2 
way up the tower- and only go from the coupler to the dipole-

So since I'm just going to hook the radials to the tower legs, are these 
truely radials or just a ground screen below the array??? Going further, 
should I strip the coax cover off at the base of the tower and ground the 
feedline going from the coupler box to the tower??

Things are working well now, don't want to screw things up too much by 
getting radical on radials.......................I think I'll just stay with 
the ground screen concept- 

73  Paul  N0AH  


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