[Elecraft] OT - SteppIR Vertical and Elecraft Products
David Wilburn
dave.wilburn at verizon.net
Sat May 16 16:30:01 EDT 2009
Yes that is a good page. I had considered elevating the vertical, but
with the fiberglass mast I would need to get several more sections,
and then wasn't that crazy about the elevated wires over the back
yard. If I recall, he wanted a pair of resonant wires for each band
for the elevated setup.
Dave Wilburn
NM4M
Erik N Basilier wrote:
> David,
>
> W.r.t. radials you may want to study the findings of Rudy Severns, N6LF
> at www.antennasbyn6lf.com. His findings have also been published in QEX
> (spread over several recent issues). Some of his findings in simplified
> bullet form: "A number of 1/8 wave radials will be better than half that
> number of 1/4 wave radials. At least until you have 32 or more radials."
> "Four is just not enough." The latter quote applies to radials on the
> ground. In contrast he confirms that four elevated radials work great.
> You really need to read it all, and you should certainly not assume that
> 1/4 wave radials on the ground are a good choice.
>
> Personally I can testify that elevated radials can be very very much
> better than a poor ground level "ground". Years ago I had put up
> inverted L's for 80 and 160. I first tried feeding them against my
> existing safety ground system which consists of a number of ground rods;
> one the feed point, another at the electrical meter, a couple at my
> tower (an important tie-in to my station ground still to be completed).
> These are tied together with 4" wide buried copper ribbon, branches of
> which also extend to some far-away parts of the lot. Although I achieved
> a good impedance match, the received signal strength was incredibly
> poor. I then added two elevated 1/4 wave radials for each band,
> suspended under the eaves of the 1-story house, trees, and short poles
> attached to the fence. The impedance match was still very good, and the
> antennas worked very well indeed. I believe I would have had the same
> results with verticals. I also recall trying just a few 1/4 wave buried
> radials for a vertical way back in my youth, with poor results. I am now
> a big fan of elevated radials. If you decide to go with ground level
> radials, I suggest you perform a sanity check after you install them:
> Temporarily string up one or two 1/4 wave radials at a height of 10 ft
> or so, sloping one end down to the feed point. Compare the results from
> the temporary radial(s) with results from your radials on the ground. If
> the elevated radials work best, consider either making them permanent,
> or improving your other radial system by adding more radials, and
> possibly making them shorter.
>
> 73,
> Erik K7TV
>
>> In the near term I want to try out (experiment with) a 33' vertical.
>> At Frostfest this year I picked up 32' or so of fiberglass mast. I am
>> going to tape a wire to this that is 34' long, twist the mast to wrap
>> the slack up, much like a widely spaced helical.
>>
>> When setup at home, it would (eventually) have a good ground field
>> (would start out with 16 radials and work my way up to 60'ish). The
>> coax run when used at the house would be less than 40'.
>>
>> When setup for portable operation (connected to mount I have for my
>> trailer hitch, to use when parked) it would have 4 radials of a length
>> not yet determined and the coax run would be less than 20'.
>>
>
> .......
>
>
>> Current plans are for ground mounting. I understand that as radials
>> go, more is better. The radials would be black insulated wire on, or
>> within 1" of the surface of the ground. They would not be cut to 33'
>> or less if the space was not available.
>>
>> I am curious on the experience of the group with a similar vertical,
>> tuner at the rig, and short coax run.
>
>
>
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