[TowerTalk] folded radials

[Dennis O'Connor]

Brett, 
An old AM broadcast engineer I know is also a ham and I have chatted with him on 80 meters... He uses a 1/4 wl. vertical antenna... He has a 4 foot square (4' x 4'), 10 ga., copper plate with a hole for the base insulator to pass through...  He does not use radials... He gets out just fine and feels that the plate is not a compromise in gathering the return currents compared to the usual radial system that a city ham can get down... He has the room for  some radials and states that changing to the plate increased his field strength over the previous radial system enough that he no longer uses radials...
I mention this as an item of interest for those who cannot put out radials that perhaps the cost of a copper plate may be a fair return for performance....  

He did state that thin copper sheathing as for roofs, etc., is not as efficient as a plate with some thickness of ~ 0.100" or more - and that it wants to be a single plate, or if pieced together should be continuously soldered at the joints...... 

YMMV  SAR  BNI

denny