Mark Sheffield wrote:

Irv & Mike - the radials don't have to be tuned? Or - the real
quesion - they aren't random length, you're still talking about
cutting a bunch for 80M, a bunch for 40M and a bunch for 20M (or
something like that) and then fanning out all the radials from the
base, correct?

Question - if and when I put up a vertical, how close can it be to a
tree, the house, etc, if ground-mounted?

tnx - Mark

On Thu, 28 Aug 2003 16:29:22 +0000, Mike Luther
wrote:

Very good advice, Irv

Irv Finkleman wrote:

If you plan to be at your QTH for a while, it's not difficult to
lay untuned radials along the ground, or bury them down a half inch
or so with a pizza cutter. I laid mine in the grass and after a
couple of months you don't even see them anymore -- the mower goes
right over them. If you are concerned, you can nail them down
using hairpins. They not only serve as a great base for a vertical,
but they also provide a very good rf ground. They don't have to be
any special length -- its the quantity that counts.



If you are going to tune radials, they have to be above ground
level by a distance that makes setting up a vertical a much more
complex matter. The idea of tuned radials allows you to operate with
as few as three and provide an effective rf balance for the antenna.
The main idea of the radials, tuned or untuned is an rf ground to
act as the phantom half of the vertical. They need not be tuned, but
if you lay them on or below the ground you need more of them. On the
ground, what would have been a tuned radial, interacts with the soil and
detunes, so the length becomes unimportant. You provide the ground by
using more radials of various lengths, and they need not be spread out
as 'radially' as the pictures show -- but the more the merrier, and the
more effective they will be.

One of my verticals was four feet from the house. I fired an arrow
into the air, so to speak, but my arrows (signals) landed into a lot
of very interesting places (other stations).

Some lucky guys have their verticals mounted right at a tree and use
it for the vertical support.

Hope this is clearer than mud :-)

Irv
--
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Diagnosed Type II Diabetes March 5 2001
Beating it with diet and exercise!
297/215/210 (to be revised lower)
58"/43"(!)/44" (already lower too!)
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Irv Finkleman,
Grampa/Ex-Navy/Old Fart/Ham Radio VE6BP
Calgary, Alberta, Canada