[Lowfer] Medfer Antenna.

[LEE BAHR]

Need input.  I have a small legal AM transmitter kit I want to put on the hi 
end of the AM BC band.  I have a lake house in a small subdivision in the 
country.  the subdivision is a circle you can walk around in a matter of a 
few minutes.  My house is near the middle of all this.  I want to legally 
send out AM on the transmitter with subdivision news.  I would suspect the 
diameter of the circle is around 1200 to 1500 feet.

I have not built up the transmitter as yet but have built a loading coil on 
a 4 inch PVC pipe and made an antenna that looks like a HF ham mobile 
antenna.  (Base loaded).  It is just a little taller then 9 feet and has a 
top hat made up of 2 foot long welding rod on the top.   Rules say: 
antenna/ground wire/ and feedline less then 10 feet approx.  (Does the top 
hat count in the length)?

I can mount the antenna with transmitter at it's base on the ground and put 
radials in the ground.  Would the radials count in the length calculated by 
the FCC?  I can also mount the antenna along my house ridge near aluminum 
gutters.  This would put the base up at around 18 foot.  I know hooking a 
ground up at this point would make the thing illegal.  I think hooking a 
ground  to the gutters would also make it illegal.

So it comes down to, do I put it up in the air with no ground radials or do 
I put it on the ground and can I have ground radials or just a ground stake 
and which system would cover the most territiry?

I really want to be legal with this thing since it will be running all the 
time and the goal is to just cover the small 50 home subdivision.   (The 
area has very few AM stations which can be heard at this location).

Anyone with any input and/or advice?

Lee, w0vt