Interaction between a vertical and a nearby tower can be a very real concern. I have done a short NEC modeling study on the subject which sheds some light on the subject. It's far from complete and I will no doubt expand it in the future but I have received a number of questions on the subject so here is the study in its present form. Download Tower coupling study The file is approximately 250 kB.
March 12, 2009 in Vertical array design ideas | Permalink
I mentioned on the towertalk reflector that I had been trying to make accurate measurements of resonance in grounded towers with large antennas systems on them. A number of people asked for the details. So here they are: Download Some notes on measuring tower resonances . These are only preliminary notes which give the general idea of what I'm about. In due course they will be updated.
73, Rudy N6LF
February 12, 2009 in Vertical array design ideas | Permalink
I just realized that my weblog was open for comments. I thought I had it closed so I have not been reading any of your comments. Please send comments to n6lf@arrl.net
October 15, 2008 | Permalink
On Friday October 17th I'll be giving a talk at Pacificon 2008 in San Ramon, CA. The talk is just an overview of my recent ground system experiments. Here is a copy of the presentation for those who attended or have an interest:
October 15, 2008 in Design of radial ground systems | Permalink | Comments (0)
I first posted this note some weeks ago with information on the relation between vertical height and radial lengths. However, that information was buried in one of the attachments. To make it easier to find I've extracted the parts relevant to radial length versus height and they are now a separate and much smaller download: Download Vertical height versus radial system .
A couple of weeks back I noticed a question on the TowerTalk reflector about making the radials on a vertical the same length as the height, i.e. use shorter radials on shorter antennas. Something along these lines has been "conventional wisdom" for a long time but I'd never seen any real justification for it. So I did a quick modeling study and up to a point it does seem to support this idea. I wrote this up in:
Download radial_system_design_and_efficiency_in_hf_verticals.pdf
While I was at it I took a look at the variation in radiation resistance and ground loss resistance as the radial system and/or ground characteristics were varied:
Download radiation_resistance_variation_with_radial_system_design.pdf
This one is just for fun, I don't think it has much practical application but it may help in understanding how verticals work.
October 04, 2008 in Design of radial ground systems | Permalink | Comments (0)
Over the years I have talked a lot about ground systems for HF verticals. Most of what I have said comes from modeling and calculations of my own and experimental work of others most of which was for LF or MF broadcast applications. Other than the QST articles by Sevick many years ago and the CQ articles by Arch Doty, there has been little experimental work reported in amateur literature which could be used to judge the validity of NEC modeling and whether it can actually tell us something that's real for HF verticals. Beginning about a year ago I set up a test range in my pasture and began a series of careful experiments on HF verticals with various ground systems including some with elevated radials. Two results stand out. First the NEC prediction that a few elevated radials can be as efficient as a large number of ground radials seems to be correct at least at my site with the test antennas I used. See experiment 3.
The second interesting item is that using only a few long radials can result in much higher ground losses than the same radials shortened. In the past I have often said that a few long radials might be a waste of copper but were harmless. Not so! Experiments 4 and 5 are related to this.
I also ran some experiments with the 40m+ version of the SteppIR vertical. My particular interest was developing a ground system that was effective from 40m through 10m. That work is reported in experiment 6. Some obvious ground systems don't work all that well.
I have written up my experiments in a series of reports. Nothing formal just a review of the experiment, the results and some comments.
Download antenna_ground_system_experiment_1.pdf
Download antenna_ground_system_experiment_2.pdf
Download antenna_ground_system_experiment_3.pdf
Download antenna_ground_system_experiment_4.pdf
Download antenna_ground_system_experiment_5.pdf
Download antenna_ground_system_experiment_6.pdf
Separate from the reports I have written up a detailed description of the test arrangments and instrumentation: Download antenna_ground_system_test_setup.pdf
I suggest you read the test setup description first so you can follow the experiment reports which do not contain all the test setup details.
On Saturday, August first, I gave a talk to the NW DX convention on this work. The following is the PowerPoint presentation file for that talk: Download ground_system_tests.pps
August 04, 2008 in Design of radial ground systems | Permalink | Comments (0)
In June I gave a four hour antenna workshop at the Seapac hamfest in Seaside, OR. There were 200 plus slides and the file was too large (21 MB) to post on this blog but I've gone through and pulled out those parts which apply to short antennas and ground systems. This may be of some help to those working with the 600 m experimental group and on 80/160 m also.
Download seaside_2007_antenna_workshop_mod_3.pdf . This is about a 1.4 MB file.
July 18, 2007 in Design of radial ground systems | Permalink | Comments (0)
It is possible to calculate the effectiveness of a wire grid or of spaced radial wires in reducing the ground current and associated ground loss for a given ground system. The equations are relatively simple and easy to use. Take a look at Download ground_system_wire_spacing.pdf
October 07, 2006 in Design of radial ground systems | Permalink | Comments (0)
I am a member of the WD2XSH 505-510 kHz experimental group and we have begun test transmissions. Attached is short note describing my antenna and station setup for 600 m. My Call is WD2XSH/20. Download 500_khz_station_description_1.pdf The file size is about 270 kB.
October 01, 2006 in 600m experiment | Permalink | Comments (0)
It's been some time since I last added a new post to this site but I've not been idle. One of this summers projects was the installation of a new 160 m ground system. In the process I made a series of very careful impedance and field intensity measurements using a vector network analyzer and a spectrum analyzer. I've written up this work in some detail and you can find it at Download 160_m_vertical_measurements.pdf . File size is about 290 kB.
September 23, 2006 in Design of radial ground systems | Permalink | Comments (0)
