I have finished installing the radial field for my new ham radio antenna (a Hustler 6BTV). Finally.
I had planned on 36 radials, each 32′ long. Unfortunately, I don’t have that big beautiful flat yard that’s in the pictures in the installation guide. Mine is uneven, and it has trees, stumps, roots and rocks. Lots of stumps and lots more rocks. And I buried mine rather than trying to get Bermuda grass to just “grow over” them. I had to route things around the obstacles. Yes, they tell you not to do that, but as I’ve found in the doing of ham radio, theory and practice are often very different. My late antenna, a DX Commander, had a radial field that only went from west to northeast, and I worked Australia, Japan and Asiatic Russia on it. If having this one even roughly laid out in a circle is an improvement, I’ll be talking to Elon when he gets to Mars.
Now I get to install and tune the vertical part of the antenna and the two add-ons for 12 and 17 meters. I anticipate yet more fun.
Good thing I like this hobby so much.
