[TowerTalk] radials

[Eric Hilding]

On Wed, 14 Jun 2006, Rob Atkinson, K5UJ wrote:

> the davis RF price for #16 looks pretty good by current pricing however I am
> a bit leery of the physical robustness of #16.

Umh, I would think "shipping costs" vs. local ACE/OSH/Home Depot/etc. acquistion would be a consideration depending upon where one lives :-)

FYI, I almost pulled the rest of the hair out of my bald head over this "radials" stuff when putting together the "Farallon Special" antenna for my IOTA NA-178 trip.

Due to the severe antenna and ground footprint restrictions, what I ended up with were 16 one-tenth wavelength radials for 40m (the lowest band operated), which had to work on 30/20/17m.  They were elevated and draped over a stone courtyard wall...held in place with bricks and rocks.

You might find the following info & pix interesting:

http://www.k6vva.com/iota/na178/farallonspecial

Of course, it helped being near the ocean albeit up on a cliff :-)

I was going to use the same antenna for Field Day from KL7 but it looks like I will have to cancel my trip again due to QRL with other matters here.

FYI & 73...

Rick, K6VVA