Brett,
An old AM broadcast engineer I know is also a ham and I have chatted with him
on 80 meters... He uses a 1/4 wl. vertical antenna... He has a 4 foot square
(4' x 4'), 10 ga., copper plate with a hole for the base insulator to pass
through... He does not use radials... He gets out just fine and feels that the
plate is not a compromise in gathering the return currents compared to the
usual radial system that a city ham can get down... He has the room for some
radials and states that changing to the plate increased his field strength over
the previous radial system enough that he no longer uses radials...
I mention this as an item of interest for those who cannot put out radials that
perhaps the cost of a copper plate may be a fair return for performance....
He did state that thin copper sheathing as for roofs, etc., is not as efficient
as a plate with some thickness of ~ 0.100" or more - and that it wants to be a
single plate, or if pieced together should be continuously soldered at the
joints......
YMMV SAR BNI
denny
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