John Ferrell wrote:

I am looking for the easiest way out for me! I mow the three acres of
grass with a small Ford Farm tractor and a belly mower. It is seldom
cut really short but I still fear picking up the wire in the mower. I
have used home brew wire staples when I lived in Ohio but this soil is
pretty tough for that. The SM2CEW Plow is what inspired me to consider
burying the wire to begin with.

Mow it as low as possible when the grass is dormant, put down the
radials, staple them and then let the grass grow as high as possible
before mowing at a medium height. If you put the radials down now, I
suspect they will mostly pack down before the grass starts growing
again in the spring, especially if we get a couple of snow or ice
storms.

I think it likely that I am considering more radials than are
practical anyway. 500 feet of #14 insulated wire was less than
$25 the last time I bought it.

Here's a simple formula to save you money since I've heard that same
roll of wire is now around $45! No matter how long your radials are,
put the ends down such that they are ~0.025 wavelengths apart on the
highest frequency band you plan to use. On 160 this is ~13', on 80
6.5' and on 40 3.25'. This works out to about 63 radials total if they
are all 1/4 wavelengths long in a circular configuration, but the
formula also works for random lengths in non-circular configurations.
The idea is to have the end points no more than ~0.025 wavelengths
apart. While ON4UN's book suggests 0.015 wavelengths apart, some
recent measurements by N6LF seem to indicate that may be overkill (i.e.
60 radials are within a few tenths of a dB of 120 radials).

http://www.antennasbyn6lf.com/files/...asurements.pdf

73, Bill W4ZV