[Lowfer] No luck with - JH

[Garry Hess]

> Ground rods are not a substitute for radials. At lf,  they need to be as long as you can make them
and as many as you can afford.

I beg to disagree. Page 3 of The Lowdown, July 1980 article by Ed 
Phillips (available for download at 
http://www.maxmcarter.com/lwantennas/index.html) cites the following 
conclusions of E.A.Laporte's 1952 study of ground systems:

(1) "... radials of length equal to the antenna height are almost as 
good as those of infinite length, and that a length of half the antenna 
height (outside diameter of radial system equal to antenna height) is 
about 2/3 as effective as very great length."

and

(2) "... 2 radials are about half as good as a very large number, and 16 
radials are within a few percent of being as good as 112.

Thus, one need not fear that thousands of feet of radials are necessary 
to produce a lowfer that can be heard out of the back yard. I'm quite 
happy with the performance of my lowfer vertical antenna of 35' height, 
15' tophat, and 8 x 35' radials (4 of which are terminated by 4' ground 
rods; a pair of 8' ground rods are located at the antenna base).

-- 
73, Garry, K3SIW, EN52ta, Elgin, IL