[HCARC] Vertical Antenna Radial System

[Kerry Sandstrom]

Gary,

The FCC requires an AM b/c station to have 120 radials .  There is no 
requirement for us.  I use a Butternut HF2-V with a 30 meter coil for 80, 40 
and 30.  The radials are aluminum electric fence wire (about a 1/4 mile of 
wire for < $20.00 at Lowes).  I have 16 radials each one about 50 feet long. 
I used a mfuse box ground block, about 3 inches long with several holes and 
set screws.  I put a few radials into each hole and then screw the set screw 
down to hold them.  The radials are strung out along the ground and held 
down with landscape staples (also from Lowes).  I've had to replace the 
radials once in the 5 years I've been here.  Sixteen is enough.  I'm not a 
DX'er but I've worked Europe, JA's and VK's and all states except KL7 in 
casual operating on 80 meters with it.  It works even better on 40 and 30. 
I've used it on 20, 17, 15 and 10 with my homebrew antenna tuner.  I'm quite 
happy with the way it works.  There is absolutely no need to spend big bucks 
on a plate to attach your radials, nor is there any need for fancy wire for 
the radials.  Ham radio doesn't have to be expensive!

Unless you live in a salt water marsh, no ground is good.  On the ground 
properties maps, all of South Texas shows the same.  If you live in the hill 
country, your ground is poor.

You can't solder aluminum wire.  Even if you use copper, you can solder it 
but outdoors the solder seems to deteriorate over time .  If it is buried, 
it will go even faster.  The ground we have here seems to eat metal quickly, 
so I wouldn't bury anything.  I ran my coax, about 100 feet, in white 
plastic pipe and buried it.  I don't use any kind of "choke " and I have no 
RF in the shack.

Someday I'd like to add more radials, but it works so well I don't feel any 
pressure to do it.  My antenna is 33 feet tall.  With a taller antenna the 
radial system is less important.  The Hustler antennas are fairly short, I 
believe, and with the traps, a good radial system is more important.

If you think about resonant radials as in a ground plane, be aware that the 
antenna has to be probably at least a quarter wave above ground.  Putting it 
on a ten foot pole with a set of 80 meter quarter wave radials won't hack 
it.  The manufacturers who have all their fancy names and odd-ball schemes 
for eliminating radials on ground mounted vertical antennas are swindlers, 
in my opinion.

Kerry