..often are composed of separate sections having poor electrical bonding to each other. Those connections can be problematic to electrical systems.
"often are composed of separate sections having poor electrical bonding to each other. Those connections can be problematic to electrical systems."
Easily fixed by adding jumper conductors between each segment where they bolt/fit together. Scrape away any surface paint to make maximum conductivity at the connection points, then seal with weather silicone to prevent corrosion.
RFB
I will guess that the reason so many radials are needed when buried in the dirt is for two possible reasons:
1) An attempt is made to maximize bonding between the radials and the poor conductivity of the earth;
2) Also being attempted is to overcome a tendency of earth to be absorbtive, to a certain amount swallowing up the radiated power.
Radials in the air perhaps are not combatting inefficiencies of earth limitations, and are exposed straightaway to the air path.
I am flying these ideas by way of inviting comment as to their correctness.
Quite on target there Carl. Idea is to maximize the footprint of your return path in the dirt with radials a plenty...ie a bigger catch bucket for the signal to return and complete the circuit.
It also helps maximize the ground wave propagation as you discovered by placing a ground wire up along in the direction of that stubborn hill and wala the signal followed it.
RFB
A 50' piece of 4' chicken fence, cut in half, and placed in an "X" under the antenna works very well. Solder it together in a few places in the middle where they overlap.. Just sayin'..
How well does the 50' chicken wire X work compared to radials?
Have you tested both?
Would this X be placed on top of the earth or covered with soil? Imagine I could do a similar thing on a roof install...
Certainly has me interested 🙂
"A 50' piece of 4' chicken fence, cut in half, and placed in an "X" under the antenna works very well. Solder it together in a few places in the middle where they overlap.. Just sayin'.."
An excellent alternative and it does work. A simpler way would be to assemble the poultry fencing (I was reminded recently of what it was called in the industry...but I already knew) or chicken fencing can be assembled so that it forms a square, or a circle (pick your flavor) in a 20'x20' or 20' radius and just lay that below the antenna. Let the grass and dirt build up over it, or soften the dirt with a tiller and then place on the ground, walk around it and stomp it into the softened dirt to bury it, or shovel some top soil over it.
RFB
Never use nails or tack nails on shingle areas exposed to weather. Eventaully you will have a leak and rotting wood. Also, do not recommend using vent pipes for lightning grounds unless you don't mind having a grillion amps of lightning current flowing through the middle of your house. IMHO. 🙂
Hardware cloth.
Ok - So.. HOW does one solder chicken wire? I cannot get resin core solder to stick.. I got it heated to the point of near breaking - no luck...
Trying to bon 16gauge copper solid wire to the fencing.. ideas?
Soldering using a torch and electronic grade solder flux is tricky because the high temperature of the torch oxidizes the copper and the solder won't stick. It can be done but don't get things too hot. Try a 40 watt iron.
Else,
Acid core solder should work but will corrode.
Try forming a pigtail of the chicken wire and use a wire nut to fasten it to the copper wire. Fill the wire nut with silicone dielectric grease to keep out moisture. You can get the grease at an auto parts store (sometimes free for the asking).
Neil
Dont use chicken wire, use harware cloth. There is a difference and you can solder hardware cloth.
Yeah - that chicken wire was a pain in the butt. I ended up with pigtails (twisting it together along the seams) and using a wire nut.
I will look into hardware cloth - this forum (in another post by wdcx) is the first I have heard of it.
Well, you have seen it, I'd bet, but just didn't know what it was called. It's not "cloth" in the traditional sense. It's the wire mesh used for crawl space and eve vents, to keep animals from settling under the house or birds or bats in attic spaces.
Available at just about any hardware store. Actually, it can even be had in copper, and with various meshes, from a few companies.
I've been thinking about using a tight mesh version wrapped and epoxied around a 10" dia. x 9' PVC (about a foot's worth of 6awg coil turns at bottom) drain pipe to create a vertical cage monopole antenna with more surface area.
Back in my FCC compliance testing days, we used hardware cloth to establish a ground reference for our 30 meter test site. Then it was 40 meters long and 10 meters wide. We bought it at Home Depot on 50 foot legths. Overlaped the edges and using a torch and copper wire, we soldered every so many feet. Placed some edging around the whole mess and covered with cypress mulch. Gave the description to the FCC laboratory along with the site attenation data and bingo, our site was registered.