[TowerTalk] Burying radials

[Red]

Hi Bud and all;

My answer to this problem was to cut 6" lengths of #12 wire (fence brace 
wire, light duty, from a farm supply store) and bend a small "U" at one 
end of each piece.  I didn't try to straighten the slight curvature of 
the pieces but just pushed them into the ground over the radials at each 
low spot in the terrain.  

To bend the "U", I put two nails in a vice, stuck the end of the wire 
piece between the nails, and bent them.

I cut the pieces with a fence tool.  It worked easier than a moderate 
size diagonal cutter.

I put down 66 radials with 8-9 staples each fairly quickly and have been 
mowing and driving equipment over them with no problem.

The end of each radial is secured with a 16d nail.  I cut pieces of 
painted aluminum (I think it was some kind of siding trim, about 1" 
angle), flattened them in the vice, and drilled a hole for the nail so I 
can easily find the ends, in case I decide to put down more radials.

73 de WOØW

Bud Hippisley, K2KIR wrote:

>This winter I put up a 90-foot Rohn 45 guyed tower -- partly to support my HF Yagis and partly to serve as my top-loaded 160-meter vertical.
>
>Because the ground was frozen by the time I could get around to putting down radials, I laid some temporary radials on top of the ground just before the first significant snowfall.   Now the snow has gone (finally!) and everybody is tripping over the wires, so now I need to bury two or three dozen "permanent" radials.  After looking in my junk box, the radials are most apt to be #12 insulated solid copper house wire (for mechanical strength) or #16 bare solid copper wire (if I find any advantage to using it).
>
>I live in a forest, so the top surface of my yard consists of pine needles, clumps of moss, and numerous surface roots from pines, balsams, hemlocks, and an occasional hardwood.  Because there are so many roots I doubt that the "EdgeHog" or any similar device would be of much use to me.  Instead, I'm thinking of hand trenching with a garden trowel a foot or two at a time, where possible, and then using some kind of pound-in clip to hold each radial in place where it has to come out of the ground to go over a tree root.  (Probably in pairs -- one on each side of the root.)  Something that looks like a miniature tent-peg seems like it would be ideal, but I certainly can't afford real tent-pegs, based on the prices I've seen in area stores, and they're typically far too big for what I have in mind.  
>
>Soooo.....I'm wondering if anyone knows of something that would do the "tie down" job and is readily (and cheaply) available at Lowe's, Home Depot, or the national hardware chains.  (Whatever I use, I expect to need many hundreds of them.)  Alternatively, has anyone ever taken a large electrical or construction staple and bent the sharp ends back up, so that they resist being removed -- much like the barb on a fish hook -- after being driven into the ground?  
>
>Bud, K2KIR
>
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