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Locating Lost or Broken Radials

Created by Paul Signorelli, W0RW on 2020-09-30

  Locating Lost or Broken Radials

 

I have lost several of my underground ground radials in the past. They seem to sink into the grass and are hard to find after a few years.   Operating on 630 meters means there are long radials everywhere.

 

I wanted to repair them and I found that I could easily find them by injecting RF at 1 MHz, modulated with 400Hz AM, from my signal generator through coax to the main ground stake.


   Then I take a small AM transistor radio with a built-in loop stick antenna and duck tape it to a yard stick or a selfie stick so that it glides along the ground right above the grass/ground. 


It picks up the 1 MHz signal along the radial and fades out if the radial is broken. 

 

So I only have to slip a knife under the sweet spot to find the radial.


 
Paul,  w0rw

 

 

 

K0CCM2020-10-16
Locating Lost or Broken Radials
Has anyone tried using a metal detector? It would seem to be a good application for that device.
W9WLW2020-10-14
Locating Lost or Broken Radials
Terrific idea - thanks for sharing it with us. 73
VE3CUI2020-09-30
Locating Lost or Broken Radials
Clever...!

An ad hoc, MacGyver-like, "...metal detector"...!
KJ4DGE2020-09-30
Locating Lost or Broken Radials
Great idea!