On Fri, 20 Apr 2007 07:58:16 +0100, "Richard"
wrote:

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?

Hi Richard,

Actually salt water sucks as a local ground - it is as poor a "good"
conductor as you could imagine. Carbon is a far better conductor than
salt water, but no one yet has suggested building on top of a coal
seam.

You would be better off filling your yard with sand to the depth of 30
feet or so (yeah, sure). The testimonials attributed to salt water
comes with its far field qualities of a tremendous mismatch to air and
offering spectacularly low radiation launch angles.

So, copper replaces a very poor conductor (as a first pass
approximation). Invest your copper in close proximity to the base of
the antenna. That is, a lot of short radials, and a fair number of
medium size ones, and a few long ones.

Two things to consider. The ground closest to the antenna is
responsible for efficiency in loading. The ground further out
(between 5 and 10 wavelengths, or more) is responsible for launch
efficiency (offering lower launch angles).

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC