I've read a lot about radials: elevated vs. gull-wings vs. underground,
how many (120/64/31/16/4/2/0), etc. After reading the following, maybe
someone will tell me if I did right or wrong. This is long, but the
nitty-gritty details might be necessary for a good answer.

I recently erected a 20-meter vertical in my front yard with 16 equally-
spaced, about-20-foot-long, UNinsulated radials (electric-fence wire)
around its base starting at a metal plate and just laid on grass about
3 inches above the soil and "pinned" (with about 8-inch-long stiff-wire
loops) to the soil at the ends to keep them taut/straight. The metal
plate was "grounded" with a 2-feet-long metal rod driven into the soil.

The antenna worked acceptably well, so I decided to make it more
permanent (and the radials less-likely to be tripped over!-) by
mowing the grass REALLY short and resituating the radials such that
they are now only about an inch above the soil (and will soon be
hidden below 2 inches of grass). I also "pinned" the radials a
little more tightly to the soil once or twice along their lengths.

While doing that, I realized that if I lengthened two of the radials
by about 10 feet, I could connect them to 8-foot ground rods (at the
bases of a tower and a flagpole) that were themselves connected (with
thick, multi-strand, insulated copper wires that run from the tops of
the ground rods horizontally about 10 feet and then 9 feet down) to
a 75-foot-long Ufer ground that goes around about half of the
foundation of my basement.

My worry revolves around the fact that, while my radials are NOT *IN*
the soil, they are pretty-well connected TO the soil, and two of them
are connected to the best ground I could buy when my house was being
built. Have I done wrong by grounding them, or should I have used
INSULATED radials and NOT "pinned" them to the soil and NOT connected
them to my Ufer ground?

--W0PBV.
--
--Myron A. Calhoun.
Five boxes preserve our freedoms: soap, ballot, witness, jury, and cartridge
NRA Life Member & Certified Instructor for Rifle, Pistol, & Home Firearm Safety
Also Certified Instructor for the Kansas Concealed-Carry Handgun (CCH) license