[Antennas] Butternut Vertical

[Dan Richardson]

At 09:08 AM 8/18/2002 -0500, Nelson Moyer" <ku0a@mchsi.com>
  wrote:

>While I grant you that ground mounted verticals operate most efficiently
>with radials, I think it's a stretch to state to a new HF operator that they
>MUST have radials to work. I worked 305 countries on the DXCC list and
>5BDXCC in 10 years using the Butternut HF6V, mostly ground mounted, with
>nothing but one 8 foot ground rod driven all the way into Iowa clay.


While I don't doubt that you worked the 305 countries with your arrangement 
is correct I suspect band conditions had more to do with it that anything 
else. Tom Schiller, N6BT, has worked all continents using nothing but a 
light bulb mounted on a fence post. In fact, he wrote an article about that 
was published in QST some time back titled "Anything Works"

As to radials requirements. Brown, Lewis and Epstein proved, over a half a 
century ago, that a monopole's efficiency is vastly improved when operated 
with a good ground (radial) system. That's why commercial users and 
knowledgeable amateurs employ such systems to maximize their signals.

Operating  without a good radial system is, indeed, possible (as you have 
shown) but at a cost of efficiency. Heck, people are working the world 
using QRP everyday.

Danny, K6MHE