Inlay of the counterpoise
With a beautiful afternoon in view, I rustled up the help and headed out to the ranch. A good opportunity to lay a counterpoise. A lost art, some might declare, but for those who wish to contact the “outside world” with a multiband vertical antenna, the ground plane is necessary. With the lead (three to four long anxious weeks) time before the actual delivery of my Hy-Gain DX-88, I’ve been busy.
The theory is simple: place as much wire on the surface of the lawn as one can get past the local “grounds inspector” (aka spouse). No sense trying to hide your efforts, because any time a suburban lawn sprouts very high aluminum poles and a layer wire radials, it WILL be noticed. This is not my first array; back before the sod was laid, I had invested in a roll of copper wire from a local electrical motor factory. It seems like a lifetime ago, and sadly there was nothing left to reuse. Time to start anew.
This time around, I’ve gone for the last remaining rolls of speaker wire at the hardware store, a collection of lugs to allow easy attaching, and an evening of measure and cut. There are as many recipes as there are cooks, but I decided to follow the lead of the manufacturer. They sell a precut radial kit; I precut my own. The savings were worth my time and effort with a pair of wirecutters. I’m laying a minimum set of 28 for now. Next year, as the sunspot cycle ramps up I can consider if more will make a difference.
There was no room in the budget for a commercial radial attaching plate (DX Engineering DXE-RADP-1P) so I learned a few technical skills and constructed a working equivalent.
The radials were made from speaker wire, which meant two, two, two wires in one. We peeled the insulation pair apart, and the whole thing was attached to the lawn with homemade ground staples. I never did find the commercial variety, so another session of snipping wires took place this morning. The staples are roughly three inches long; time will tell if this method works. The grass has been cut back before snowfall begins, so I’ll have a better idea next June. For now, the installed radial set looks like this. If you don’t see very much, that’s already a tribute to our efforts this afternoon. Shorts and bare feet – the best dress code for a counterpoiser.
