[TowerTalk] Staples

[ROBERT CARROLL]

I use ceiling panel hanging wire from Home Depot to pin down radials.  I
don't use the preformed hangers as they are too expensive.  I buy the
bundles of the steel wires which are about 5' long, pull out a wire, and
carry it and a pair of shears with me as I walk a radial.  When a staple is
needed I cut about a foot length of the stuff and bend it into a staple.  In
the dirt I had in NJ I could often push the staple all the way into the
ground by hand, but in stubborn cases used large pliers to coax them in or
in some cases used a hammer to tap them in the last inch or so.  In my soil
the wires remained taut and the radials sank into the earth after a month or
so.

I had my old septic system with a drainage pit converted to a more modern
system with a drainage field last fall.  Of course many of my radials were
plowed up during the process.  I was interested to see that many of them had
sunk to 4-6 inches below the surface over a several year period.  

Before an OT convinced me that radials stretched and pinned would sink out
of sight I had used various methods to cut slits in the earth and push the
radials into them.  This was always a painful process. I was really happy to
find the OT's method actually worked.  Having recently moved to GA I am
getting around to installing radials and hope the soil here will be as
cooperative.

Bob W2WG