On Wed, Jan 22, 2014 at 8:18 AM, Richard Fry <[email protected]> wrote: > "The first permanent use of an elevated radial ground system appears to be > at WPCI, 1490 kHz in Greenville, South Carolina. This installation, > designed by William A. Culpepper, involved replacing a standard buried > system with a four wire elevated system consisting of #10 solid copper > wire, one quarter wave in length, and supported on treated wooden posts > which keep the radials 4.9 meters above ground.
Careful here. The buried radials were NOT dug up. "Replacing" means moving the counterpoise connection of the feed system from the buried system to the elevated system. The presence of 0.4 wavelength buried radials turns the ground underneath from the typically inferior Carolina medium into a superior composite medium. Use of four elevated radials **over that composite medium** is far superior to four elevated over 2-3-4 mS/m. You said: "Such characteristics would apply to the use of elevated radial systems by ham radio operators as well as they do for AM broadcast stations." Such a statement requires qualification if the basis of the BC experience includes the previous dense radial field in poor earth **which was not dug up**, and in all likelihood deliberately left in place by the engineer for the now well-known enhancement of sparse elevated radials over poor earths. Why spend a lot of money to dig up the radials? Retire them in place, and harvest the rewards of a far more conductive composite medium underneath the raised radials. I stand by my earlier statements. 73, Guy. _________________ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
