[BC] Big copper theft in IA

[RichardBJohnson at comcast.net]

I don't think you should have 3 feet of lossy dielectric in the capacitor formed by the tower and its ground system. The most expensive power, modulated transmitter power, is simply used to heat the earth over the ground system. The "ground system" is not used to connect anything to the earth. It is used as something to feed the antenna radiator against, i.e., a counterpoise. Minimum losses, i.e., no earth covering at all, would maximize the RF field at a distance. A compromise has been used by broadcasters since the art began in which the radials were buried just deep enough to prevent damage and a ground-screen was layed on the top of the ground near the tower.

Cheers,
Richard B. Johnson
Book: http://www.AbominableFirebug.com/

----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Meuser" <robertm at nyc.rr.com>

My solution is and always has been to bury the radials deep enough so 
they can not be pulled up. 3 feet is a good number. It solves several 
problems at once.