[TowerTalk] Ground Radial Project

[Kinney John-R17512]

Hi Tony,

If you would like to do some reading about this subject, you can go to www.antennasbyn6lf.com.  Rudy has conducted several experiments on the length of radials verses the number of radials verses elevated radials verses buried radials verses length of vertical etc, etc.  Lots of information with charts and graphs.  It is not meant to be the story to end all stories, but it gives the reader plenty of information for starting their own experiments.  The article I read was in QST sometime last year, maybe March or April....  I decided to try 32 radials, 33 feet long, buried (laying on the ground), under a 5 band trapped vertical.  Seems to work great for me.  I may try more radials in the future to see what happens.

Have you considered selling off some of that wire????

Whatever you do, have fun doing it...

John Kinney
KA7CVJ

Message: 1
Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2011 14:39:38 -0500
From: "K2VI" <k2vi at cox.net>
Subject: [TowerTalk] ground radial project
To: <towertalk at contesting.com>
Message-ID: <E939010FC3FB47E3B15FC0BC003D1EC2 at your22ca86d5c4>
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Ok, thanks to all who responded to my last post. really appreciate all the help. I considered the ground bus system but didn't want to bury the aluminum due to it disintegrating in 5 years and above ground how could it be secured without it shifting. So i just went ahead and ordered the DX engineering stainless plate. It U bolts right to the post. I just bought 26,000 feet of # 14 stranded insulated copper wire at a govt surplus bussiness in norfolk va. I paid 615.00. I know i will never use all of it in a lifetime but who knows. For that price i had to jump on it. So the question is on my 43' vertical how many radials would you reccomend before it's a waste of time and should i make them longer than the antenna. I can run some as long as 55' and some as short as 25'. Im thinking 25' would be ineffective. Any ideas. thanks in advance.

tony k2vi