Brilliant Gary! Dean K3GGN ~~~
On 8/10/2012 11:16 PM, Gary K9GS wrote: > Here's how I lay radials in the woods with heavy brush. > > I have a ~15 foot long piece of wooden oak stairway handrail. The kind > you see for basement stairs. It's about 2 inches in diameter and has a > flat on one side so it's D shaped in cross section. > > With the flat facing down, cut a bevel on each end at a ~30-45 degree > angle to the flat. Looking from the side it looks kinda like this: > > <_______________> > > In each end I screw in a small screw eye. > > To lay a radial, lay the handrail on the ground, flat side down, and tie > the radial to either screw eye. If there is a lot of "stuff" to go > through that's close to the ground it's easier to tie the radial to the > trailing screw eye. Then, keeping the flat on the ground use the > handrail like a needle to thread it under/through the brush. You can > sometimes give it a good push and it will go right through. This is > where it helps to have a longer/heavier handrail. > > Then I work my way around the brush pile and get to the end of the > handrail. Then just untie the wire. I usually tie the end of the wire > to a 3-4 inch long nail and just push the nail into the ground to hold > the end in place. > > The length of the handrail also helps to keep the radials evenly > spaced. You can keep the end closest to the antenna aligned with the > base and use the previously laid radial as a guide to keep things even. > > Wear a long-sleeved shirt or your arms will look like you were in a cat > fight. Around here (Wisconsin) our brush is typically "Buckthorn" which > is covered with 1/4 inch long very sharp thorns.......<ouch>. > > This works really well for me...YMMV > _______________________________________________ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
