Good point, Dick. > So while this isn't a very efficient antenna system compared to one using > 120 x 1/4-wave buried radials spaced every 3 degrees around the monopole, > it > does not show much directionality in the azimuth plane -- as might be > anticipated for the lopsided ground system it uses
There was an AM station is Ann Arbor Michigan with the radials cut in a direction where the staion had too much field strength. The only thing that did was destabilize the array as weather changed, and slightly reduced efficiency in all directions. The station really had a phase monitor problem, but the engineer, probably out of frustration, started cutting radials loose. At my present QTH on 40 meters, somewhere around 15 evenly spaced radials flattened off the measured field strength improvement. Even 60 radials would have been a waste of wire. About 20-30 radials flattened off the 160 meter system using 1/4 wave verticals. The 120 radials being "perfect" thing is obviously a myth, just like the idea it takes a special counterpoise to reduce losses better than a dozen other methods the same size. I'm still hammering away at the counterpoise thing off and on: http://www.w8ji.com/counterpoise_systems.htm 73 Tom _______________________________________________ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK