Hello Dan,

Some thoughts:

The 10 dB loss is, of course, referenced to a "perfect ground." Even
with a full length (quarter-wave) vertical and your ground system,
performance would improve by about 3 dB. Not a blockbuster.

Improving the radial system, as noted by others, is a more realistic
course. You ought to be able to get the ground resistance closer to 20
ohms with more radials close in. Then you will be only 6 dB worse than
if your ground were perfect.

Putting up an indoor dipole is cheap and quick. Put it up and compare it
with the vertical. But don't hold your breath. You will probably find
that with some paths, the dipole is better. you may want to keep both.

I assume you've ruled out a capacity hat, center loading, and a coil
with lower losses, as suggested by others. But with these changes and an
improved ground system, you might get a full (6 dB) S-unit improvement.

Good luck.

73,

Chuck





dansawyeror wrote:
All,

I have been using an 80 meter loaded vertical for a couple of years with
moderate success. The ground system is a dozen 'untuned' radials 40 or
so feet laying on the ground. The feed line is about 100 feet of RG-8
coax. The SWR in the shack is about 1.1 to 1.

I have done some research on the antenna and based on it parameters it
should have a radiation resistance of about 4 Ohms. This says that the
coil and ground are absorbing on the order of 45 Ohms. This is 10db
performance loss.

I have limited space and the most common solutions are not available to
me. From a practical perspective it would seem to me that building a 40
foot center feed loaded dipole and putting it in the attic or on the
roof would probably perform somewhat better.

Is this a reasonable assumption?

Would burying the radials and connecting them to several 4 square foot
buried screens substantially help the ground system?

Thanks,
Dan kb0qil