[Elecraft] On ground - in ground radials

Gary Peterson kzerocx at gmail.com
Sun Jan 16 17:23:02 EST 2022


...”Digging in radials does not interest me. Likewise, catching them 
in lawn equipment is also a PIA. So, here is what I have done and it has 
worked well”...  Tom, WB2KLD”

I did something very similar, many years ago, after hombrewing a 40 meter vertical.  In order to pin the copper wire radials to the ground, I used pegs, made from wood dowel.

I bought some lengths of quarter-inch wood dowel and cut them into 2 inch lengths.  One-half inch from the end of each, I drilled a hole, large enough to pass the radial wire.

I threaded several pieces of dowel onto each radial wire.  As I stretched each wire away from the antenna base, I pounded the pegs into the grass with a hammer.  When finished, each radial was stretched tightly to the ground.  On uneven ground more pegs are required to cause the wire to adhere to the terrain.  Within a few weeks, the radials were no longer visible and I could mow over the radial field.

My reason for using wood pegs was that they were non-conducting. Thus, there would be no possibility of electrolytic corrosion or rectification between dissimilar metals.  Also, the wood pegs are, over time, biodegradable.  The aluminum tubing vertical antenna worked very well, until an ice storm loaded the guy wires so heavily that it failed.  The radials are probably still out there.

Gary
K0CX

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