A quarter wave vertical mounted 1/2 wavelength or higher with at least four radials will outperform a ground mounted radial even with 120+ radials. The quantity of radials does not substitute for height.
I noticed a slight gain when increasing the radials from 40 to 60, but no improvement going from 60 to 124.
Any antenna is always better than no antenna, and the ground mounted installation is very unobtrusive and easy to disguise as a flagpole in restricted neighborhoods, and overall has satisfactory performance.
Again, my conclusions are based on the characteristics of my QTH. A trap vertical with 120 60' radials and 100' clear space around the antenna might have a quite different result.
The brand name of the 5btv antenna has been intentionally omitted, as I am getting comments from people looking for an entirely different subject.
About Me
- Sbk_homebrew
- Sbk lives in Northern California and has been brewing beer since 1990.
1 comment:
Hi...
Nice web page, good pictures, great 5btv installation. My swr curves match yours pretty much... also ran into the same problems on 40/80m. Currently sitting at 36 x 66ft radials and will go to 60 in spring. Antenna base has 4ft snow around it now.
Shunt coil didn't work well for me either. Took off the capacity hats, lengthen 40m section another 30inch or so to achieve resonance. Antenna retuned fine, 40m good, 80m curve matches yours. Big advantage is radiation efficiency goes up.
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