Thanks for all the excellent commentary guys!

My reason for the question was not really looking for a major
improvement in the operation of the antenna, but more longetivity.

I'm getting close to retirement and have moved to a new state.
Whatever I put up, I want it to stay up and keep looking nice for
about 20 years or longer.

I lived in my last home for over 20 years, my backyard was almost
solid copper from all the radials I had run over the years, plus when
I first moved there, I did the entire backyard in 2x4 welded wire
fabric, a layer of straw and some grass seed, then another layer of
2x4 welded wire fabric running the other way, then eventually sod over
that. The last antenna I put up, a Butternut I used 3,500 feet of
wire to make the radials and tied them to the welded wire fabric.

I have set up an area at the top of a hill, am in the process of
grading this area to flat, and hopefully within a couple of months
have everything up except the antennas.

I have cheap access to a plating company who will plate everything to
keep it from corroding. When I checked into the price of gold
plating, it was only a couple of bucks more than stainless silver or
stainless brass and I was just thinking perhaps the gold would last
longer and perhaps even work better.

I have 1,225 sq. ft. of small link aluminum chain link fencing that is
going to be buried as the start of my ground system in this graded
area.

I am also having a 62 foot fiberglass utility pole (50 feet after
installation) installed at the corner of the house, this will hold my
VHF/UHF antenna's and the my HF Inverted Vees, plus be the center of
two dipoles, etc. Up near the antenna farm there will be another 30
foot fiberglass utility pole (after installation), which will be
horizontal with the 50 foot pole at the house.

I'm just trying to get everything planned out on paper before I do
anything as it's easier to erase a pencil line than redo an antenna
farm after the fact.

In effect, I'm going to duplicate as closely as possible what I had in
St. Loo and hopefully add a few more, since I now have the space.

TTUL
Gary

On 17 Apr 2004 21:30:46 EDT, am (Gary V.
Deutschmann, Sr.) wrote:

When I checked into the price of gold
plating, it was only a couple of bucks more than stainless silver or
stainless brass and I was just thinking perhaps the gold would last
longer and perhaps even work better.

Hi Gary,

Ships at sea, for millennia, have used bronze for durability. Talk
about an aggressive environment. One of my buddy's told about his
experience at the Naval Research Lab where a scientist offered a cube
of solid stainless steel for testing. They dumped it into sea water
and dissolved it.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

Thanks Richard

You may have solved my problem!

I will definitely check into using bronze.

Thanks
Gary

On 18 Apr 2004 11:22:52 EDT, am (Gary V.
Deutschmann, Sr.) wrote:

Thanks Richard

You may have solved my problem!

I will definitely check into using bronze.

Thanks
Gary


Hi Gary,

Look for what is called "white bronze." Such is the premium connector
base metal that is then plated with Gold. The reason for this is to
reduce IM products (the Bronze has a lower electrochemical interface).

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

I have 1,225 sq. ft. of small link aluminum chain link fencing that is
going to be buried as the start of my ground system in this graded
area.

which will most likely disintegrate in the ground into white powder.

Yuri, K3BU

"Yuri Blanarovich" wrote in message
...

I have 1,225 sq. ft. of small link aluminum chain link fencing that is
going to be buried as the start of my ground system in this graded
area.

which will most likely disintegrate in the ground into white powder.

Anyone remember "beldfoil" aluminum sheilded cables?
It was sold in the 70's as a replacement for copper shielding.
After a few months exposure to salt air, the aluminum turned into white
powder, leaving only the drain wire as a sheild. Not very effective.
I think they've given up on that, and gone back to copper, though I have
seen copper shield used along with the aluminum-mylar material.

Hi Yuri

I lived in my last house for slightly over 20 years.

Although a high percentage of the welded wire fabric decomposed over
that time, leaving iron in the soil, evidenced by all of my hydrangeas
turning bright blue, the areas of aluminum fencing never did
deteriorate.

In fact, the fencing I will be using is the same fencing that
surrounded my property for those 20 years, with the lower ends buried
over a foot into the ground. Not the actual fence, but a partial roll
I had left over after constructing the fence. That had been in
storage all this time.

If I could find a company that makes this same small weave aluminum
fencing I would have them do my whole yard at my new house. But I
have not found it available anywhere. Perhaps as you pointed out, it
don't hold up under certain conditions.

My aunt lived in Florida for awhile, she had the same type awnings
installed, by the same manufacturer even, that she had installed some
25 years earlier in St. Loo, they didn't hold up but only 4 years and
were full of holes. Assumably from the salt air.

TTUL
Gary

Gary Deutshmann, Sr. wrote:
"If I could find a company that makes this same small weave aluminum
fencing I would have them do my whole yard at my new house."

Copper radials could be better.

Ed Laport who worked with Brown, Lewis, and Epstein at RCA wrote on page
121 of "Radio Antenna Engineering":

"The radial disposition of wires in a buried or surface ground system is
dictated by the natural paths for returning ground currents. Meshes opf
crossed wires which were once widely used, should not be used with
vertical radiators because the return paths are not direct and
eddy-current losses in the closed loop circuits of the mesh can be
appreciable."

Best regards, Richard Harrison, KB5WZI

Richard Harrison wrote:
Ed Laport who worked with Brown, Lewis, and Epstein at RCA wrote on page
121 of "Radio Antenna Engineering":

"The radial disposition of wires in a buried or surface ground system is
dictated by the natural paths for returning ground currents. Meshes opf
crossed wires which were once widely used, should not be used with
vertical radiators because the return paths are not direct

With a fine enough ground spacing, though, I would think that the path is
'direct enough?'

and
eddy-current losses in the closed loop circuits of the mesh can be
appreciable."

I thought the entire point of the ground plane was that the induced currents
are necessary to make up for the current sources that are 'supposed' to have
come from the 'missing' half of the antenna?

Joel Kolstad wrote:
"I thought the entire point of the ground plane was that the induced
currents are necessary to make up for the current sources that are
supposed to have come from the "missing" half of the antenna?"

The currents need to be induced in low-loss material for efficiency.

The performance is as if a vertical and its reflection made up a dipole
in place of a monopole and its reflection. The equivalence is very good
in most respects.

According to Laport, G.H. Brown, the inventor of the "ground plane
antenna" and one of the famous "Brown, Lewis, and Epstein Trio" at RCA
is responsible for using electrostatic principles for describing a
ground or image plane and writing the equations to quantify the
potentials due to the charges on a system of cylindrical conductors to
be used as in a transmission line to determine characteristic impedance
in terms of capacitance per unit length and the velocity of propagation
of a TEM wave. See page 513 of "Radio Antenna Engineering" for details.

A vertical radiator driven against the earth or a ground plane needs to
complete its electrical circuit between the radiator and ground through
existing capacitance via capacitive (displacement) current. To minimize
loss, ground current in the lossy earth is minimized by using enough
radials of sufficient length to capture nearly all displacement current
before it can flow through any significant length of earth.

If the vertical radiator is high above the earth and far away from
ground, only a few radials suffice to capture nearly all displacement
current. Earth far below is out of the current loop.

When the radials are near the surface of the earth, many radials are
needed to hide the earth`s surface from displacement current with the
vertical radiator. Fortunately, when the radials are closely spaced, any
current induced in the earth doesn`t usually travel any significant
distance before being collected by a nearby radial and this keeps the
earth-current loss down. For the FCC, 120 radials of 1/4-wavelength
evenly distributed around a 1/4-wave vertical radiator are just about
perfect for the medium wave broadcast band.

Some of B, L.& E.`s performance charts are on page 119 of "Radio Antenna
Engineering".

Best regards, Richard Harrison, KB5WZI