On Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:49:38 -0600, Lostgallifreyan
wrote:

Ok, copper's no problem, was just wondering about stuff I had plenty of
at hand.. I wish I had a lawn. I was thinking that it would be an
ideal method. My main difficulty (apart from a large amount of heavy
logs (and most of a tree trunk) is that the best place to mount the
antenna is in a far coner of a plot so I can't lay radials all round it.

Running a fan of 90 degrees is fine, there's nothing exact about this
except for those who imagine they will suffer the dB of
out-of-symmetry.

I can probably get the permission of one neighbour to run a ground wire
along the far end of his garden along a low wall, but that same wall is
a high wall on the other side, there's a drop of several feet as well as
no chance of permission to lay wires there.

Don't bother. It isn't worth anyone's effort or intrusion.

This is why I'll want a
ground rod, as a tree used to grow there, the rotted roots might be my
best chance of anything like a conductive network that is close to the
surface, in addition to a few ground wires.

A wire mesh or mat (like chicken coop wire) over the surface of that
area would serve far better. That doesn't sound like an option so the
matter of pursuing conductivity of rotted roots is an illusion.

I'm a tenant, I don't own
the land, and can't do much except work round what is there.

You'll be able to do enough without much impact.


Thinking about what I read recently, it seems that if the whip is not
vertical but slightly leaning back over the plot of land toward the houses,
it will have a better chance of using the sky waves, but what I don't know is
whether that demands ground radials to be biased (if biased at all) to favour
coverage on the side the antenna is leaning over, or the other side. My guess
is the side it's leaning over... Is this true? If so, it will help a lot to
make the best of that space.

Your gain/loss advantage will be in the direction from the antenna
base out along of the middle radial in a 90 degree fan. Leaning won't
significantly alter things for a very short antenna (in terms of
wavelength).

Now as to these advantages and disadvantages. Once you get to a
minimun set of radials (call it four), the addition of more wire won't
budge your S-Meter more than a needle width (and that is being
generous). The addition of more radials concerns establishing a firm
reference of ground for Z.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC