You don't put down a lot of radials only for more return current; you put down a lot also because over time you'll probably lose some of them to damage or decreased conductivity or some form of disturbance. If your radial field is uncontrolled, and you can't watch it constantly, you may wind up with a doggie digging up and chewing on one, or who knows what else. The assumption is that you want to do this once and have a ground system that will last for decades. You also put down a lot of radials so that the return current on each one is less. When you have enough, you will no longer need to fool around with "ununs" and other ferrite contrivances because 98% of the RF will be on the radials instead of your feedline exterior.
If you have an inverted L that's the classic vertical length, around 60 feet high and 60 or more feet horizontal, (you can put bends in the horizontal part provided they are over 90 degrees) your feedpoint impedance should be low--10 to 20 ohms. If it is higher than that, you need more radials. Are there out buildings in your ground system or on its periphery? If they have metal--aluminum siding and/or a steel roof, you should strap them into your ground system using brass clamps and copper strap below grade back to your radial junction. What if such a structure is RF transparent but smack inside where you want radials to go? You need to put copper strap along the foundation all the way around the structure and bond the interrupted radials to the strap, continuing in lines out the other side. 73 Rob K5UJ _________________ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
