[TowerTalk] Number of Radials and what lengths vertical 80m up.

[Kirk Kleinschmidt]

Hello from MN,
Last season, for the first time in 41 years on the air, I installed a "short" inverted-L. The vertical portion was 25 feet, with the rest of the horizontal-ish wire (104 feet total) running toward a nearby treetop. An SGC SG-239 autocoupler was installed at the base, and the antenna was used on 160-40 meters. I put down 32, 50-foot radials (on ground). This was a "test" antenna (BIGGER version going up this year), but compared to the usual horizontally polarized antennas on the low bands, it worked wonders.
I worked 160 WAS QRP in two months (CW). My QRP low-band DXCC totals went from 1 to 16 (160m); 45 (80m); 60 (40m). No FT8, BTW, although I have been playing around with it. 

I chose my radials based on Rudy's papers, available space, and cost (aluminum electric fence wire, which was practically free). The rule of thumb is to use LOTS of shorter radials if you can't install LOTS of full-size radials. In my limited experience, lots of shorter, non-resonant, on-ground radials outperforms the usual four quarter-wave radials.
Others may chime in with more specific comments regarding the STEPPIR and what it requires for radials, but you may want to consider the "32x50 approach," or something similar.

Regards,
Kirk, NT0ZRochester, MN

My book, "Stealth Amateur Radio," is now available from www.stealthamateur.com and on the Amazon Kindle (soon) 

    On Wednesday, August 22, 2018 10:51 AM, Charles Morrison <junkcmp at gmail.com> wrote:
 

 I think the manual says four radials per band

On Wed, Aug 22, 2018 at 11:50 AM W1JCW John <W1JCW at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Putting a steppIR Big IR 80m - 6m.
>
> What length of radials should I put on and what lengths?
>
> Have room for several and wanted to see a few schools of thought of
> lengths and how many.
>
> Thanks
>
>
> 73-
> W1JCW
> John
>
>
>
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