On Thu, 29 Apr 2004 20:09:29 -0400, Ron wrote:

Thanks to everyone who responded to my post. It looks like the general
consensus is to add radials if I want it to work. I suspected that all
along but I got talked into it. Dipoles have always worked great for
me.

So, now I'm toying with the idea of mounting it on the roof. The back
half of the roof has only a 3" pitch, so it's easy to work on. There
are lots of trees around to tie the radials to.

I think I will do some experimentation with adding traps in the radial
lines. Maybe I can make 6 band radials. Would that work?

I have some time to think about it. The Red Shouldered Hawk's
incubation lasts about 33 days and the young fledge in 39-45 days.
She's been in the nest for about 14 days so it could be July! Then it
might be too damn hot to work on the roof.

Of course, I consider her to be a guest of honor, things like that are
major events for some of us :-)

Could be my tiny bit of North American aboriginal blood. My spirit
bird is the Peregrine and my spirit name is "Whole in the Night Sky"
(Micmac).

73's

Ron, W1WBV ~|:-)

"Ron" wrote in message
news
On Thu, 29 Apr 2004 20:09:29 -0400, Ron wrote:

Thanks to everyone who responded to my post. It looks like the general
consensus is to add radials if I want it to work. I suspected that all
along but I got talked into it. Dipoles have always worked great for
me.

So, now I'm toying with the idea of mounting it on the roof. The back
half of the roof has only a 3" pitch, so it's easy to work on. There
are lots of trees around to tie the radials to.

I think I will do some experimentation with adding traps in the radial
lines. Maybe I can make 6 band radials. Would that work?

It's not strictly necessary that the radials be resonant on all bands to
improve your situation ... I would bet that if you cut the radials to 33'
you'll find a noticable improvement. As I said, I had only 2 per band (on
the ground) and it worked much better than without any radials. More is
better, of course, but in an aerial situation you'll be limited and I'd
recommend you try four 33' radials and see how that works.

The idea is to provide an "image plane" for the monopole to "work against"
and reduce ground losses ...

73,
Carl - wk3c

On Sat, 1 May 2004 11:20:11 -0000, "Carl R. Stevenson"
wrote:

Thanks Carl.

I will try that first. 33' should work OK for 40, which is the band I
want most.

Right now the only HF antenna I have working is a 15m dipole. And, 15
has been very quiet here lately.

One of the posters suggested I read Butternut's blurb on radials:
http://www.bencher.com/pdfs/00361ZZV.pdf
I read it last night. It shows a tuned radial using twin lead. It has
a total length of 32' 8". That may be something to try also.

Thanks again . . . 73 . . ., Ron Crowley, W1WBV

It's not strictly necessary that the radials be resonant on all bands to
improve your situation ... I would bet that if you cut the radials to 33'
you'll find a noticable improvement. As I said, I had only 2 per band (on
the ground) and it worked much better than without any radials. More is
better, of course, but in an aerial situation you'll be limited and I'd
recommend you try four 33' radials and see how that works.

The idea is to provide an "image plane" for the monopole to "work against"
and reduce ground losses ...

73,
Carl - wk3c

There are two related issues here. One, getting an adequate match between the
antenna and the feedline. Two, having an adequate ground plane to achieve the
desired radiation pattern. The fact that an antenna is matched, does not of
itself mean it will radiate well.