Antenna on Mound Of Dirt

[flintstone mop]

Hello Radio Folks
We are entering another radio season on 160M. I have a "miracle" antenna to install for 160M. To give it breathing room, from the other aerials, I have a spot that is actually a mound of dirt about 8 feet high.
I'm wondering if that would mess up performance, with the radials "drooping" down to the rest of the  property and spread out in the normal fashion. This is a Vertical antenna installation.
Fred

[WBear2GCR]

I bee no ant specialist... but...

I suspect that 8 ft of height will have almost nil total effect, given the huge length involved with a 160m ant and radial system.

Otoh, there are VHF/UHF ants that deliberately use radials that slope downwards at an angle of 45degrees or so. One might look into how the angle of the radials effect them?

Also, there are some ants that I've been reading about that act like a vertical with a top hat on one band but radiate like a flat top on the other - 80/160 being one combo. I don't recall which radiation patter was which, but that might be an option too, and allow you to skip a heavy radial installation??

                  _-_-bear

[W3SLK]

When I was a jn (not too awful long ago), I made a 40M dipole and just tossed it out onto the ground. You should have heard the responses when I sent via CW "ANT HR IS GROUND MOUNTED DIPOLE". It got me on the air until I could figure out how to best get it up in the air.

[KD6VXI]

I would hesitate to suggest that might be indicative of the mass amount of Ground Loss in your location....  Err, old location.

Shane

[Jim, W5JO]

Fred, my inverted L sits on a hill with the radials all running away at various angels down.  In a perfect world, it makes a difference, but not enough to worry about.  So long as you have adequate radials and a good match to the feed line, you will do just fine.

Remember antennas are the last black art.  Calculate, construct, istall and then make them work.