I came across this discussion on vertical antennas and thought it might be useful to someone planning a new antenna. I can attest to the performance of a quarter wave vertical with 4 radials built on a wooden swing up A-frame tower elevating the vertical about 20 ft at base.worked fantastic DX. BEST antenna I ever had.
There was a W3 maybe W3BC his last name was Wolfe or Wolf, maybe Ben Wolfe,
I used to hear him during the late afternoon about 4 P.M. when I was
sailing on the East Coast of USA, day after day working European stations
one after another. I was 300 miles out to sea, so I was closer to Europe
but he was working them easily, just like I could sitting out on salt water
with a full sized quarter wave vertical mounted on the top deck of a tanker.
I was intrigued, I called him, he was using a full sized vertical mounted
on the apex of his garage with three elevated resonant radials elevated 7
to 8 feet. He told me that elevated radials were far more efficient than
even the classic 120 broadcast standard radial pattern.
I later was told that in his younger days, Ben worked for FCC and was the
engineer responsible for that 120 radial standard.
The common denominator is coverage, 3 radials in the air provide a ground
return just like 120 radials buried in soil because there's no competition
8 feet up in the air.
Elevated radials need to be tuned to be effective counterpoises.
The RCA engineers who came up with the 120 ground radials for AM broadcasting was G.H. Brown, R.F. Lewis, and J. Epstein. in GROUND SYSTEMS AS A FACTOR IN ANTENNA
EFFICIENCY, Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers, Volume 25, Number 6 June, 1937.
Phil - AC0OB
