With elevated radials operating at 180 kHz, the radials were probably a form
of Litz wire, a multi-strand wire that has each strand insulated from the
other. Such wire is necessary to get low loss at VLF. The interconnection
between radials is interesting; that design would look more like a
continuous ground plane, the ideal situation.
Bob, W5LT
-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Lux [mailto:jimlux@earthlink.net]
Sent: Friday, March 30, 2007 3:54 PM
To: Barrie Smith; Rob Atkinson, K5UJ; towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Radials
At 11:56 AM 3/30/2007, Barrie Smith wrote:
>This chat about radials reminds me of a long, well maintained road, well up
>in the mountains, I walked up several years ago.
>
>At the end of the road, and at the top of the mountain, I came upon an
>installation that appeared to be a GWEN facility, twelve foot fence and
all.
>
>While I could not see much of the concrete building, I did see a very
sturdy
>tower and many, many guys.
>
>The thing that attracted my attention the most was the radial system. It
>was strung from the base of the tower, which was on the highest point of
>nearby land, downhill for quite a distance, and was mostly elevated over
>rock.
>
>The interesting characteristic of the radials system was that it was not
>just wire strung straightaway from one end to the other, but was
intersected
>with wire at right angle every foot or so.
>
>Similar to wire fence?
>
>Another interesting thing was the diameter of the wire. It was certainly
>close to one inch.
>
>Could the thickness of the wire and the large number of wires be necessary
>because of the low-frequency used by GWEN (180 KC)?
Any ice and/or snow and/or wind in the area? Could be that the size
is chosen for mechanical purposes.
(or, that it's a "standard installation" desiged for such, and
installed everywhere.. wire cost might be a small fraction of having
multiple designs and drawings)
Perhaps designed to also carry lightning/HEMP impulses? (Which would
require larger diameter conductors, especially if you need to take a
hit anywhere in the grid)
the notional GWEN station has 300ft towers and a 300 ft radius ground
screen (or thereabouts) and runs in the >$1M construction
cost. Since the function is survivable communication during nuclear
attack, one can assume that they're worried about HEMP.
Through the miracle of the internet, you can also read lots of
"interesting" stuff speculating about what the function of GWEN
really is, and most interesting, what conspiracy folks thing they're
doing with it now that it has been "officially shut down"..
>73, Barrie, W7ALW
>
>
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