Joel, Very simply put. When you have elevated radials, > 0.1 wavelength, your system uses the radials as intended. However, with radials on the ground, your system will see the vector summation of the radials and the ground. What that means is your ground losses will be greater with ground based radials. And you are going to miss out on gain at the much lower angles.
I hope this helps. 73, Barry K3NDM ----- Original Message ----- From: "Joel Black" <w4...@charter.net> To: "elecraft" <elecraft@mailman.qth.net> Sent: Saturday, May 18, 2013 8:37:15 AM Subject: [Elecraft] OT: Elevated vs. Buried Radials A lot of talk has been going on about radials on the KX3 Yahoogroups Reflector, but there is so much FOD on that reflector, I usually delete most of the messages. Although it may have been mentioned there, I have probably missed it. Other than for portability, why are elevated radials so important? I have a ground-mounted 6BTV (not my main antenna) in my backyard. I have four radials for each band and they were all put in with yard staples. I did this in the Fall after the last grass cutting. By Spring, the grass had grown over them. Now, several years later, there is at least one inch of dirt over them. In all honesty, it's only a backup antenna and probably needs some radials replaced. Now, in my situation, there was no way I was going to use elevated radials. Someone recently posted a link to the SteppIR vertical - the CrankIR. Looking at the one page from the link, it only mentions elevated radials. Now, I've never seen a loaded-tower broadcast antenna with elevated radials either. Is the only benefit portability? Please, I do not want to also be accused of perpetuating FOD on another reflector. I'd prefer you reply directly to me. If needed, I'll summarize and repost. Thanks, Joel - W4JBB ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
