On Tue, 19 Jul 2011 22:53:57 -0000, wrote:

I don't have any CCR problems but I do have a vertical antenna of
about 28 feet cobbled together and the SGC-237 does a great job with
it. The SGC-237 is pricey but I don't think it can be beat.

Several years ago I used 4 fifty foot extention cords on top of the
ground for radials and it did work. I experiment with antennas a lot,
so everything at my qth is always changing.

Perhaps you can glean a little inspiration from
http://dixienc.us/28FtVert/28FtVertical.htm

There are some nice light weight fiberglass whips on the market in the
$100 range. One of these days I will follow that path.


And by the way, I live in the hills above Henderson, NV so the quality
of the ground isn't good; lots of rock and hard clay with poor
drainage.

Purchase price up to $400.00 OK. Any ideas of what might work in my
situation?

Many thanks in advance!

Some thoughts on the subject...

If you are going to have an auto tuner, the antenna itself need not be
anything more than a piece of tubing.

I have a 34 ft piece of tubing with a SGC-237 and that tuned 160 (kind of
marginally) through 10 with no problem.

I added a relay controlled loading coil to switch in for 160/80 and now
it tunes 80 faster and 160 no problem.

If your main interest is the lower bands, just make the tubing as long as
you can get away with and let the auto tuner deal with it.

If it is next to the house, drive in as much ground rod as you can and use
a garden drip system along with some flowers or whatnot around the base of
it.

Whatever radials you can install are better than nothing.