Elevated radials are better than buried, but more radials are better than a few or none. A good minimum number (for each band) would be 8. Many studies on this have shown many more than 8 per band (like > 25) is much better and, of course, much harder and expensive to field.
I have a 33' vertical made of heavywall aluminum that has 7 radials for 40m and another 7 for 15m. It works well enough, but generally I use it as an RX ANT for the K3's sub rx. In my own case, the radials are buried for aesthetic reasons. Plus, I don't want to need to duck down when mowing. There is no ATU at the base of this vertical. When using this antenna for RMS Winmor (for Navy-Marine Corps MARS) just below 40m, it had no trouble handling all states west of the Mississippi with 150W drive. I would say that you should do what you can to maximize the radial count, even if it means changing your location plan. 73, matt W6NIA On Mon, 01 Jul 2013 09:30:09 -0700, you wrote: >I would appreciate any help from the group on my unusual antenna situation. >Not really Elecraft related, so OK to respond off line. > >Recently, we had to gut our back yard, as several Redwood trees were >undermining a retaining wall. Bad situation. So, the trees had to go, and with them my antenna supports! I now have essentially a 50ft by 30ft yard with 6ft fences on the three sides, house and porch on the fourth. Some hardscape prevents long radials. For aesthetic reasons, I don't have a tower or tall supports. My first shot was a fiberglass pole, at about 34ft, with a wire up the middle. Terminates in the base to an MFJ antenna autotuner. I placed the pole a few feet from the corner of the lot where, when painted, blends into a neighbors tree behind, and is an barely visible from the street. > >My limitations are the radial field. I did some research, and started with 8 >wires, varying from 15' to 35' in a 100 degree spread on the flower beds and small lawn. Another ham suggested elevated radials as an alternative, so I tried two 35' radials at 90 deg angles along two fence sides, about 4' off the ground. Much of what I read was from hams with big lots and dozens of radial in all directions. Couldn't find much on my situation. > >Conditions have not been that good, and other commitments have prevented much >testing. I have some time now and want to find the best solution. Questions for the group-- > >Give the limits on the radial field (90-110 degrees, limited length) is 10 >buried better than 2 elevated? > >Does it make sense to use BOTH elevated and buried? > >Some prelim testing, using some SE Asia DX stations, showed little difference >in the receive signal strength switching in either or both radial plans. I plan on using some on air events this week to gather signal strength reports on my transmissions. > >Any thoughts? > > >73 > >Randy Cook - K6CRC >K3 #2051 >k6cr...@gmail.com > > > > >______________________________________________________________ >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
