Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2025 09:39:58 -0500
From: Robie Elms <ruler55@gmail.com>
Cc: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Raised Radial Spacing
>All,
>In early 2025 a local ham passed away. His widow asked me to dismantle his
>station and sell the equipment. He lived on a suburban lot and used a
>SteppIR vertical. Some years ago he described the installation which
>consisted of several pieces of galvanized fencing, bonded together as his
>"radial system". The system performed well based on his feedback and
>monitoring his on the air performance. I was asked to remove the
>antenna. When I did so I found that the galvanized fencing near the base
>of the antenna had completely disintegrated. I did not find any solid
>"wire" within about 18" of the antenna base. Corrosion had taken its toll
>on the installation. Since I was removing the antenna I did not
i>nvestigate any further.
>I'm not sharing this to discourage individuals from taking this approach,
>but simply to point out one potential issue.
>Some further information:
>3. I use locally sourced galvanized fencing for traditional purposes and
notice that some of it begins rusting within 18 months or so.
>Robie AJ4F
Points well taken. Acidic soil is worse than alkaline soil. Fellow
across town had a rental home back in 1980, and installed the 50' guyed
Delhi ltower by digging a hole and putting the bottom section into it, aprx
2.5' deep. When he removed it 10 years later, it had just about
dissolved ! Your notes twigged my long forgotten memory of that event.
For the case of the radials for the 43' tall vertical, a better method
would be to just buy some spools of 10-12-14 ga insulated copper wire.
300m rolls of of 10 ga, RW-90 power cable was 'cheap' back around 1997.
Copper prices in the last 3 years have skyrocketed.
The thought of slitting the backyard up to install buried radials makes me
gag, not gonna happen.
Jim VE7RF
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