There's no contesting on 12 if that matters to you. Would be easy to make a two band quad. 15 will be much more fun than 12. 15 is more likely to be open in the evening or sometimes all night.

Here is my full paragraph, before you removed the end of it:

"I think its amusing that some think Tashjian may be snowed under with orders. How many ham towers do you see going up at sunspot minimum? My city recently told me they hadn't received a ham tower application in YEARS. ***I doubt there's any commercial growth either.***

I suspect the tower business stinks amid this recession.

But I guess they could have "secret military orders," the perennially popular excuse used by slow-shipping ham companies.

"small vendors cancel orders all the time."

--
No they don't, especially in our weakened economy. That kind of terrible customer service in the internet age suggests a vendor is in dire shape.

I think its amusing that some think Tashjian may be snowed under with orders. How many ham towers do you see going up at sunspot minimum? My city recently told me they hadn't received a ham tower application in YEARS. I doubt there's any commercial growth either.  

Thanks for the link.

It's another article (and based on computer simulation) that shows the difference between a very small radial system and a very extensive one is generally only about 2-3 dB if the vertical is 1/4 wave tall. Shortened verticals will benefit more. And once again, that tiny gain is useful to you only on transmit, not receive.

To most efficiently improve that short 80 or 160 vertical, add wire (one is fine) to the TOP and not to the soil.

If you have a bad vertical (and IMO chances are you will) laying another 100 radials won't help much.

"My inverted "L" for 160 meters gained approx 18 DBI when going from 6 radials to 60 radials, 60-75' in length. In my case I would say it made a big difference."

---
Assuming you had a 1/10th decent 160 antenna to begin with (and not a mobile whip), then you should generate a huge pile of Europeans every time you transmit.

You do understand that on some radios an s-unit can be as little as one or two dBs.

My own long experience with radials/inverted L's tracks the published studies: lots more copper equals no discernible improvement on transmit (<3dB). And CERTAINLY no improvement in my ability to copy weak signals.

Low band contesters/DXers would kill for even 3 dB. If huge radial fields were the answer, then my 1 acre yard would be solid copper.

----------
By the way, did you read what N6LF discovered about using 4 radial? PERHAPS using 6 is also very bad practice?

http://www.antennasbyn6lf.com/


 

Was there something like a signature or at least a name or job title at the bottom of that email?

"how much is the receive performance enhanced when radials are added?"  

I presume you're referring to HF. With modern receivers adding radials, at best, will be like turning up the gain a bit or sitting nearer to the speaker. No Big Deal.

Read this article. Note that even on transmit, going from a simple radial system to a very extensive one does very little unless you're using a shortened vertical.  

http://www.antennasbyn6lf.com/

"He's already taken all of his lumps on this order"

No one in a REAL business thinks like that. They can salvage some PR if they act quickly and ship you a great tower and provide an apology. My guess is this discussion probably comes up near the top in Google when anyone (ham or commercial) researches Tashjian.

Have your bank run a D&B on them. You should have done that first... but you know that now.

"The reason is that's the limit of diminishing returns."

The obviously hyper-energetic N6LF scoffs at the idea of using 120 radials. Hard to justify more than 30 or so from what I can see. BTW, his findings in regard to using 4 radials are ground breaking.

Yes, backyard research has appeared in QST and elsewhere on specific issues involving ham radials. I remember  good articles about radial systems for shortened verticals, for example. But N6LF's work goes far beyond that. For one thing, not many of us have a large clear pasture to devote to radial research.  

I just skimmed his material, but it appears he used top notch equipment and worked in concert with others.  

 

As I pointed out here recently, most research on radials for vertical antennas was done in the late 1930s! That's incredible considering the labor and cost involved in building the standard (for God knows what reason) radial field of 120 buried wires.

At least hams, and probably not a commercial antenna engineer, eventually figured out that radials worked just as well stapled ON the lawn as buried in it.

If you've ever put down a single radial, you must  read this report:
 
http://www.antennasbyn6lf.com/

The long history of this hobby shows that some hams will buy just about any outboard gizmo that comes along.

There was, for example, the pre-selector fad of the 1980s and the audio DSP fad of the late 90s.... Nice additions, I'm sure, if your receiver uses 5 tubes.

There's much to be said for keeping a station as simple as possible.

My core question is purely structural:

"Would it be best to replace
thick lower sections or thin higher
sections to create the strongest
fifty footer?"

"I am going to install it about 8 ft above the ground and at least 2 to 3 radials."

If you're talking about elevated radials you would probably need 3 or 4 for each band.

"Cult" is more the word for the ZeroFive than "famous". Experienced hams who have used and modeled it (and the nearly identical DX Engineering version) find nothing miraculous.

I suppose I would find the ZeroFive miraculous if I owned a company selling wide range antenna tuners, or expensive baluns
 
       

Was reading the epinions reviews of Goof-off which I had never heard off. Be warned. As one reviewer said:

 "Horribly Toxic and Wonderfully Effective!"

Not something you'd want to save anywhere around your house if you have kids.

" He turned it back over to a ZL in New Zealand. The noise level was very low but I could not hear a peep form the ZL station on an inverted V."

Much 40 meter SSB DX is worked split frequency. You won't hear the DX if it's 100 kHZ down the band.

VERY common to work 40 meters DX at 3 pm or earlier during the winter. 40 is actually something of a day time DX band which is why you'll hear the top east coast contest stations calling CQ on 40 most of the day during the CQWW. Of course, they're also looking for Canadians.

I've heard Japan (weakly) at high noon on 40.