"Richard" wrote in message
...

I said:

Maybe a 3 foot wde cylinder would be adequate.

One thing: Why are radials so effective? They are not resonant
counterpoises, and from the aspect of surface area in contact with ground,
radials have hardly any surface area that "connects" with "the earth". I
can understand if I put in a 20 foot by 20 foot copper plate flat in the
earth that would "connect" to earth quite well, I mean the measured ohmic
resistance to "the earth" could be quite low. But also capacitive coupling
would be low too. But radials have no real capacitive coupling to "the
earth" neither much surface area in contact with "the earth". So it
confuses me as to why they are so effective.

BTW, since it looks like many wires in the earth are as good as a plate,
perhaps I could put in a wire mesh grid about 1 foot under the soil over
the whole garden . I'm digging up the garden anyway. Perhaps with some
ground stakes here and there connected to the grid, although maybe not
necessary.

The only thing that I can think of why radials are effective is nothing to
do with ohmic resistance to "the earth" or capactive coupling to "the
earth". Not even to do with a large surface area in contact with the ground.
It's simply that the ground is changed, those radials simply make "the
earth" in that locality less like an insulator and more like a conductor.
More like the radials make the ground below your feet more like say
a pool of salt water than the high resistivity ground that it normally is.
What do you think?