[TowerTalk] Raised Radial Spacing

Tue Oct 28 23:53:49 EDT 2025

 It's not ... but when we moved into this single story home in April 2018, I wanted to get on the air ASAP and you'll soon learn why that antenna was the logical choice.  
This house sits on a postage stamp of a lot in a very urban community.  We did a MAJOR remodel before we moved in and my plans for the new tower and antenna had not been formulated yet.  That all happened the following year ... although when we were doing the remodel and had the rented concrete cutting saw, I had them cut the 3' x 3' hole in the patio for the tower.
Currently, I use the vertical exclusively for 80 & 160m (my Urban beam in my limited space gives me 40m thru 6m). I promised the new XYL as a condition of installing my station in my own separate room, no wires in the air at this house and no more than the tower, the 43' vertical, and the GP-1 vertical I had in the attic of her HOA condo.  ... and so she could have her entertainment space in the back yard without my "ugly tower" intruding on the ombiance, I also installed a movable 4' x 8' tall  blind matching the house to hide the tower and rotator base. When most folks walk into the yard, they rarely see anything related to my radio activities as the blind just looks like part of the house and the 43' vertical is hidden in the planter adjacent to the 7' tall wooden property divider fence ... and it's just a plain pole (more XYL compromise). My picture on QRZ.com (which I haven't updated with our 2021 changes) shows the tower, antenna, blind, and if you look closely, the 43' vertical.
At my previous 1/2:acre yard and 2-story QTH, I had a 4-el tri-bander 25' up on a rooftop tower, a multi-band ZS6BKW stretched across the back yard installed as a sloper from the 75' point on my palm tree to a pole on the other side of the yard, and an OCF 160m long wire from the same point on the palm to the back of the yard... together with 6m, 2m, and 70cm antennas.  That house was 425' up on a 450' hill and on a clear day, I could see Catalina Island almost 50 miles away from a window of the 2nd floor room where I had my shack located.
Remember guys, those of us who don't live in the "country," or a farm or deep suburbs with lots of acreage have to make compromises to get on the air.  I've been a ham over 60 years and you just learned about compromises I've had to make.   I've always dreamed of owning a 7mHz thru 30mHz LP antenna on a tall tower like I "owned" as the OIC of a MARS station when I was in the army in Vietnam along with full size  multiple 80m and 160m antennas. It's been 56 years since I left Vietnam, life gets in the way, and that dream is never going to happen.
73, 
Steve - N1BKB
    On Tuesday, October 28, 2025 at 06:12:42 PM PDT, <john at kk9a.com> wrote:  

 I don't know why a 43' vertical would be a good multiband idea.

John KK9A

David Gilbert ab7e wrote: 

Exactly so, Jim.  I don't know why Zero Five would think that's a good idea.

Dave  AB7E

On 10/28/2025 1:58 PM, Jim Brown wrote:
> On 10/28/2025 11:15 AM, n1bkb--- via TowerTalk wrote:
>> While I have not tried the grounding system you suggested, I checked 
>> with the mfr of my Zero Five 43' vertical and he approved my 
>> alternate grounding solution.
>
> Radials and other counterpoise systems are NOT GROUND, and are NOT 
> intended to couple to the earth! They are the other half of the 
> antenna, an attempt to provide a low resistance path for the antenna's 
> return current. On-ground and buried radials DO couple to the earth, 
> but that is a BAD thing, because the earth is a big resistor. The 
> greater the number of radials, the lower the loss.
>
> I suggest that you go back and study all that has been contributed to 
> this long discussion, including the slides for my tutorial talk on 
> 160M antennas, which is really about radial and counterpoise systems. 
> The concepts apply to all base-fed verticals that have a low-impedance 
> feedpoint, regardless of what band they're used on.
>
> http://k9yc.com/160MPacificon.pdf
>

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