Brilliant idea (well done Lee!)👍🏻 The number of times I’ve seen pack of those hanging up (& bought some) and it never occurred to me that they’d be a good base. My radials miss out 90° due to my pond. One thought Tim. If you fancied a job, you could scratch out some of the paving joints and zig-zag some wires inside the patio. Then touch-up with a bucket of mortar 🤔
That's a pretty cool idea. I did it the hard way and sort of copied the DX Engineering one out of stainless plate. After about 140m of radials in a really compromised location, I finally had a decent enough ground under my Hustler for it to tune and work properly!
FWIW I did similar (but different) using an inverted frying pan stolen from the kitchen. Just cut a hole in the centre with a jigsaw, drill out the rivets for the handle and you can drill as many radial fixings as you want.
My local pound shop had some 'sink strainers', round aluminium plates. dished in the centre otherwise flat. And lots of M5 holes, including one in the centre. The pack had 2 plates, a big one with getting on for a hundred holes and a smaller one with a dozen or so. Well, I needed a sink strainer and the small one was ideal. The bigger plate - I sunk a 2m ground rod, drilled and tapped it to take an M5 bolt, bolted the plate on and used it as a radial plate! £1 for the actual sink strainer was poor value. But I got a free radial plate! I spent more on the nuts and bolts, also crimp eyes than I did for the plates.
I like this idea. Will 75m of wire be enough? I have about 200m on the ground. Which for my 10w is good. Just need to reduce the amount of kw users in pile ups!!
Thanks Gary. Once you approach 16 quarter wave lengths of ground radials the returns on more radials start to diminish quite a bit. Plus only having 180 degrees to play with. Sounds like you are having fun with a vertical too? Agree with the kw stations but it makes your DX contacts all the more sweeter when you make them! 73
I use the DX Commander ABV. I to have had to compromise on my radial direction. I have found very little difference in real world connections between directions. I have more swr problems with swr than anything else with this vertical.
Forgive me I am puzzled. You say 75m of radials, but they are all short 1m-ish totalling 75m. I thought the individual radials had to be 1/4 λ or near? This is important to me because my garden is max 10m by 5m and the vertical cannot be in the geometric centre and I have been agonising not a little. Perhaps I read too much. This is the second comment. Do I get a discount? :-D
The ideal is 1/4 wave but 1/8 wave or less will still work. Rudy Severns’ work on this found less than a db difference so in the real world shorter radials should work. The DX Commander antenna employs 2.5m long radials including for 40 and even 80m. Way shorter than 1/8 wave long but they work fine. Also even a 90-120 degree radial arc will work. 73
@@timg5tm941 This issue of ground radials has always been a problem for my head. I am a technical guy - or was but not so practical. Ofter "Counterpoise" is reffered to. I am prepared anything which works and my postage stamp sized garden seems so much bigger now. Just got to get some Home Brew stuff started and try out 80m with my """long""" wire and an SG auto tuner then some vertical experiments. You are extremely motivating,
Hi Tim. Just set up my shack and running a Icom 7300 into a Moonraker GP2500 radial free vertical. My issue is i'm getting lots of static across the whole bands. I'm not receiving much either. Any ideas. M7MGD. I'm using the auto tune.
Hi Tim. The antenna is mounted on aluminium poles which interlock. The top 100mm of each pole is narrow to allow next section to go on. I have left this 100mm section above the antenna bracket so I can clamp it to the pole. This 100mm section is above the bracket and next to the antenna. I have fit a clip on ferrite on the coax and left a small loop. Hope this helps.
Yep to a degree certainly. There’s always a compromise and from what I’ve researched the directionality isn’t a massive issue with the ground mounted variant of the quarter wave vertical. 73
I was born in 1944. My first experience with Amateur Radio was in Secondary School. A friend of mine was an Amateur whoes father had the call sign G5RW. I was beging to think that this call sign series was being reissued so I checked. Your TM sign would have been issued after RW I think so you must be at least n your 90s. Forgive me but you have worn rather well. Please explain your secret.
Brilliant idea (well done Lee!)👍🏻 The number of times I’ve seen pack of those hanging up (& bought some) and it never occurred to me that they’d be a good base. My radials miss out 90° due to my pond. One thought Tim. If you fancied a job, you could scratch out some of the paving joints and zig-zag some wires inside the patio. Then touch-up with a bucket of mortar 🤔
That sounds a possible plan Ian
Thanks for the shout out Tim, sure others done similar before me, but it seemed a simple cheap fix whilst in Screwfix. 73 M7MLB
Well done Lee and I look forward to using it 73
Hi Tim,
Great idea using those L brackets for radials. Stay safe. 73 WJ3U
Thanks Don it’s certainly a good idea I think 73
That's a pretty cool idea. I did it the hard way and sort of copied the DX Engineering one out of stainless plate. After about 140m of radials in a really compromised location, I finally had a decent enough ground under my Hustler for it to tune and work properly!
Nice job!
Just goes to show the power of sharing great ideas. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Absolutely Mike 73
FWIW I did similar (but different) using an inverted frying pan stolen from the kitchen. Just cut a hole in the centre with a jigsaw, drill out the rivets for the handle and you can drill as many radial fixings as you want.
Brilliant idea!
Nice idea as all the rest from you Tim. Waiting for a second part of the video...👍
Thank you! Next couple of weeks it should be released 73
you can add a 90 degree shelving bracket as the feed point for this as well tim, isolating the feed line adding a s0239 chassis to your design,
That’s a top idea mate
That is a brilliant idea particularly in my case for portable use :) Cheers
That’s great to hear Roly. Kudos to Lee M7MLB for the idea. 73
Great video mate love the Ground-radial idea...
Thanks Mike!
Great idea I used one on my recent ground mounted vertical I put up works great
Nice one!
I like it, Tim. If you carry on like you are, you could become as famous as G5RV.
Thank you Richard. I doubt it though lol 73
@@timg5tm941 Oh, you're too modest. 😉. Seriously though, you have developed a worthwhile TH-cam channel.
Thank you Richard. Appreciate the kind words and thank you for your continued support.
Nice work 👏👏
Cheers fella
Good idea
Many thanks 73
Great idea. That should do the job!
Thanks Syd. Lee’s design is so easy to use and put together 73
My local pound shop had some 'sink strainers', round aluminium plates. dished in the centre otherwise flat. And lots of M5 holes, including one in the centre. The pack had 2 plates, a big one with getting on for a hundred holes and a smaller one with a dozen or so. Well, I needed a sink strainer and the small one was ideal.
The bigger plate - I sunk a 2m ground rod, drilled and tapped it to take an M5 bolt, bolted the plate on and used it as a radial plate!
£1 for the actual sink strainer was poor value. But I got a free radial plate! I spent more on the nuts and bolts, also crimp eyes than I did for the plates.
Brilliant! That’s a great idea
I like this idea. Will 75m of wire be enough? I have about 200m on the ground. Which for my 10w is good. Just need to reduce the amount of kw users in pile ups!!
Thanks Gary. Once you approach 16 quarter wave lengths of ground radials the returns on more radials start to diminish quite a bit. Plus only having 180 degrees to play with. Sounds like you are having fun with a vertical too? Agree with the kw stations but it makes your DX contacts all the more sweeter when you make them! 73
I use the DX Commander ABV. I to have had to compromise on my radial direction. I have found very little difference in real world connections between directions. I have more swr problems with swr than anything else with this vertical.
Forgive me I am puzzled. You say 75m of radials, but they are all short 1m-ish totalling 75m. I thought the individual radials had to be 1/4 λ or near? This is important to me because my garden is max 10m by 5m and the vertical cannot be in the geometric centre and I have been agonising not a little. Perhaps I read too much.
This is the second comment. Do I get a discount? :-D
The ideal is 1/4 wave but 1/8 wave or less will still work. Rudy Severns’ work on this found less than a db difference so in the real world shorter radials should work. The DX Commander antenna employs 2.5m long radials including for 40 and even 80m. Way shorter than 1/8 wave long but they work fine. Also even a 90-120 degree radial arc will work. 73
@@timg5tm941 This issue of ground radials has always been a problem for my head. I am a technical guy - or was but not so practical. Ofter "Counterpoise" is reffered to. I am prepared anything which works and my postage stamp sized garden seems so much bigger now. Just got to get some Home Brew stuff started and try out 80m with my """long""" wire and an SG auto tuner then some vertical experiments.
You are extremely motivating,
Hi Tim, Just wondering what wire you plan on using for the radials?
Hi there I’m using thin 26 or 28 awg wire. 8 or 9 per bunch. With 8 bunches. 73
I show the radials in the video I released yesterday on the 20m quarter wave vertical 73
@@timg5tm941 Thanks will have a watch!
Hi Tim. Just set up my shack and running a Icom 7300 into a Moonraker GP2500 radial free vertical. My issue is i'm getting lots of static across the whole bands. I'm not receiving much either. Any ideas. M7MGD. I'm using the auto tune.
Hi Martin it’s tough to say. What is your swr per band without a tuner in place?
Hi Tim. The antenna is mounted on aluminium poles which interlock. The top 100mm of each pole is narrow to allow next section to go on. I have left this 100mm section above the antenna bracket so I can clamp it to the pole. This 100mm section is above the bracket and next to the antenna. I have fit a clip on ferrite on the coax and left a small loop. Hope this helps.
Your going to be directional where the radials are, Better if you can to get radials all the way around the antenna.
Yep to a degree certainly. There’s always a compromise and from what I’ve researched the directionality isn’t a massive issue with the ground mounted variant of the quarter wave vertical. 73
@@timg5tm941 Just highlighting it for your info.
No problem 👍73
@@timg5tm941 73 Tim keep up the great videos.
Will certainly keep trying to produce the vids and thank you for your continued support and participation. 73
I was born in 1944. My first experience with Amateur Radio was in Secondary School. A friend of mine was an Amateur whoes father had the call sign G5RW. I was beging to think that this call sign series was being reissued so I checked. Your TM sign would have been issued after RW I think so you must be at least n your 90s. Forgive me but you have worn rather well. Please explain your secret.
I eat well and have a strict exercise and exfoliation regime. Thanks for watching 73 👍