[Antennas] Putting up a vertical

Tue Aug 30 09:41:15 EDT 2005

Tim,
I had a buried coax unprotected and it flooded. Then about 15 years ago I 
installed a length of RG213 in a plastic water pipe. It has held up ever 
since. I also buried about 100' of Davis RF LMR-400 Direct Bury coax. It 
has performed well for the year it has been in. You might want to check it 
out. It costs more, but compared with the cost of a conduit and coax, it 
might be cheaper. On guying the vertical, I have a Hustler 6BTV and use a 
nylon cord to hold it against the NW wind. Works well. Yes, a complete 
set of radials is better than an simple counterpoise for a vertical mounted 
above the ground. For a vertical mounted above the ground, say 1/4 wave, 
probably 4 radials will work ok, but this is a compromise for some 
bands. A buried radial over 0.1 wavelength has some effect, so 1/4 wave 
the radials for the higher bands also work to a degree on the lower 
bands. It has been reported in the literature that installing over 16 
radials produces diminishing returns. You need a minimum or 6, and 
actually, the more the better.
Hope to hear you on the air.
73, Chas, W1CG
At 05:06 PM 8/29/2005, timbarrett at frontiernet.net wrote:
>Hi All - I'm looking for some advice before I put in the effort to erect
>an antenna, any comments appreciated!
>>Having emigrated from the UK (ex M0TIM) to the USA (new QTH is upstate
>NY, near Rochester) I’m hoping to get back into amateur radio and put
>up an antenna before the winter sets in. I have a Butternut HF6V
>antenna that I used in my small London backyard. I purchased this
>second hand, along with the counterpoise kit which I have never used. I
>now plan to erect the antenna at the side of my one acre yard and since
>there is open land to the side of my property I can lay down radials
>without difficulty.
>>For the transmission line from the shack (in the house), I plan to lay
>RG8 cable in 1.25” plastic conduit for a distance of approx 100’ buried
>1 foot below the surface (alongside a drainage pipe I am having
>installed). Does anybody have experience of waterproofing these
>conduits to stop ingress of water when buried - or shouldn't I worry?
>>The HF6V vertical will be located within a row of low trees (20’)
>running approx North East / South West. The antenna will have a clear
>view to the east and west with some blocking from the trees in the N/S
>direction. I need to minimize the visual impact of the antenna.
>>The radial system will be copper wire. Except for the line of trees I
>have clear land to lay as many radials for whatever length is
>appropriate.
>>The position is quite windy and exposed so I will probably guy the
>antenna. I am thinking of creating a concrete foundation for the
>antenna, but don’t want to permanently fix the supplied HF6V base into
>the concrete in case I want to move it later. I’ll probably put a short
>piece of scaffolding pole into the concrete and then fix the antenna to
>that.
>>Actually, I have several mounting options:
>>1. ground mounted with radials
>2. mast mounted using the counterpoise kit
>3. mast mounted with ground radials (would this even work?)
>>Is there any benefit to raising the antenna on a mast rather than ground
>level mounting? If I do, is a system of ground radials better than the
>Butternut Counterpoise system? Is it even feasible to use a ground
>radials system if the antenna is not ground mounted, ie if the feed
>point is elevated? One fact to consider is my location, we get a lot of
>lake effect snow in the winter and it drifts to the side of my property
>so the lower 3 feet of the antenna could be below the snow if I do not
>raise the antenna above ground level.
>>The advice seems to be to put down radials of 30’ long. Is there any
>benefit in putting down longer ones and how many should I use?
>>For lightning protection I plan to use a lightning arrestor at the
>antenna feed point to protect the transmission line and another where
>the TL enters the house to protect the radio equipment. Looking at
>Polyphaser, etc these seem rather expensive  does anybody have an
>alternative?
>>Thanks in anticipation
>Tim K9VB
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