[TowerTalk] Radial Connection to tower

[Gary Schafer]

Another way to think about this is that your antenna starts at ground. When
you have a long ground lead (any length) from the radial system to your feed
point that lead is part of your antenna. It doesn't matter that your feed
point may be a few feet above ground, the whole distance from the top of the
vertical right to the ground plane is going to look like part of the
antenna.

By adding the radials you have increased the ground plane and moved it
closer to the antenna and shortened the antenna.

73
Gary  K4FMX


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Stan Stockton [mailto:wa5rtg at gmail.com]
> Sent: Monday, December 14, 2015 3:23 PM
> To: Richard (Rick) Karlquist
> Cc: Gary Schafer; towertalk at contesting.com; Jim Lux
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Radial Connection to tower
> 
> Rick,
> 
> Just finished one of the 80m 4 Square Towers.  Before any change it was
> resonant at 3540 - R = 38.7.  That was with two wires going from plate
> with female UHF connector to radial ring.  Now I have 17 wires from a
> ring that is attached to the plate with UHF connector to the radial ring
> and it is resonant at 3620 - R = 34.7. Those measurements were with a
> Rig Expert analyzer with a double make connector at the feedpoint.  Any
> calculation based on those numbers as to how much power I would lose if
> all four towers were the same?
> 
> The 4 Square has always worked well for me.  Perhaps with another three
> days of work, my confidence in it will be even greater.
> 
> I think that confidence is important.  Give two equal operators the same
> setup but tell one he is using stacked Yagi antennas and the other he is
> using a dipole and my bet is the guy with the "stacked  Yagis" will win
> the contest :-)
> 
> Thanks, Rick.
> 
> 73...Stan, K5GO
> 
> Sent from Stan's IPhone
> 
> 
> 
> > On Dec 14, 2015, at 12:19 PM, Richard (Rick) Karlquist
> <richard at karlquist.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >> On 12/14/2015 10:04 AM, Gary Schafer wrote:
> >> Hi Rick,
> >>
> >> Why wouldn't you just run all of the radial wires up over the
> foundation to
> >> a small ring or combined connections right at the tower?
> >>
> >> 73
> >> Gary K4FMX
> >
> > If the radials are taut and the base is elevated, this
> > is inconvenient mechanically.  No electrical reason
> > why it wouldn't work.
> >
> > Rick N6RK