Mark,
I think a vertical on a metal roof barn would work beautifully. You would
not need any radials since the roof is the ground plane. I would mount the
antenna as near the center of the roof as possible and connect the shield of
the coax to the roof as near the antenna feed point as possible.
There should be no issue with RF inside the barn.
Carl Moreschi N4PY
Franklinton, NC
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Erbaugh" <mark@microenh.com>
To: <tentec@contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2003 5:23 PM
Subject: [TenTec] [OT] Metal Roof as Ground Plane
> Since most of my HF equipment is TenTec, there is some tangential
> relationship to this list <g>.
>
> I have a 24 by 48 foot metal barn with a metal roof. The peak of the roof
is
> about 20 feet high. Is there a wait to exploit this structure as a ground
> plane for an HF vertical antenna? What kind of performance improvement (if
> any) could I expect over the same antenna mounted on the ground. Would I
> still need radials?
>
> Currently, I have a Butternut HF6V and a Cushcraft AV5 antenna available.
I
> also have a Gap Challenger, but I understand that it doesn't use a ground
> plane (elevated feed point). Would it be worth trying any of these
antennas
> on the barn roof?
>
> The ham shack is not in the barn and the barn would not normally be
occupied
> (it's just storage) when I'm on the air, but would RF exposure inside the
> barn be an issue.
>
> 73,
> Mark
>
> P.S. There's 2 inches of snow on the ground and temps in the 20s and I
have
> good antennas up now, so this is just a though experiment for later in the
> spring.
>
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