[TowerTalk] Raised Radial Spacing

[Jim Lux]

On Mon, 27 Oct 2025 04:59:25 -0500, Rob Atkinson <ranchorobbo at gmail.com> wrote:



>Turns out, the radials don’t even have to be connected to anything to still
>make a difference. They still reduce the ohmic loss of the soil.

Have to issue a correction here. The ground system is part of the
antenna. It has to be connected to the unbalanced feedline at the
feed point in order for return current to travel on the inside shield
of the line. If you have a matching network at the feed point the
ground system is connected to its ground.



True enough - Let's say "if I drive a ground stake at the base, and I don't connect my radials to it, the antenna with the radials will still work better than the antenna without"
(or, if I use my coax shield as the "ground radial that is connected at the antenna feedpoint" :) )