On 4/1/2014 12:21 PM, Channel Jumper wrote:
Radials on a elevated antenna only works if the radials are placed at or
near the bottom of the antenna and are arranged at a 45* angle.

Obviously you have not been doing antennas very long. This statement
above is absurd and everyone here who has been making antennas or just
using them for any length of time knows this.

Making this kind of ridiculous statement removes all your credibility.
Do a little research before saying such silly things.


Any other angle and you might as well not have any radials at all!

Again, just wrong and destroys any cred you might have had here.


On a 10 -12 meter antenna, these radials would need to be at least 1/4
of a wavelength long - 9 feet and preferably 18 feet long to do any
good!

1/4 wavelength works just fine. Longer does not help.


If you coil them up they do not work as intended, but they might help a
little.

Forget calling them a ground plane, think of them more like a mirror.

If you shine a beam of light directly at a mirror, the light is 100%
reflected back towards the source.

Electromagnetic energy is not the same as light. Look that up.


If most of your radiated power is located at the bottom of the antenna
and you can reflect that power up and forward - it is going to radiate
better then something that is only partially effective.

Anything that you don't reflect is adsorbed into the ground - good for
keeping the worms warm at night, but not good for radiating RF..

Only a fool would become a ham and then move into an apartment!

Look who is calling someone a fool.

The sad truth is that most people do not understand what being a ham is
all about anymore and most people thinks that amateur radio is a right
and not a privilege.

Keep trying to understand what being a ham is supposed to be. You might
get there.

Trying to be a ham while living in an apartment building would be like
trying to be a Ocean liner captain while living in Oklahoma...

Some hams are forced into an apartment by economic forces. They can
still be a ham and operate. Your analogy sucks.

The metal railing is much too small in rf area to be an effective
counter poise - sorry but who ever told you this should go back to
school and get a real education.




You would not know anyway.