Having installed my old Shakespeare Marine vertical a while ago as a ground-mounted vertical, today was radial laying day. I’ve read that laying your radials out in the spring, across the lawn, means that the grass will grow up and gradually bury them under the grass thatch. I hope so!

Since I’m only having a test, I laid out 16 radials across a 180 degree arc. I can’t lay any radials in the other arc since the house is in the way.

I used PVC coated 7 strand D10 military wire which has seven small strands; four steel and three copper. They are the maximum length that fits in my small yard here, between about 6m and 12m in length. Near the feedpoint, I drilled a large hole in a piece of redundant 1 inch wood and fed all the radials through this and under some gravel to the ATU. I did the same at each end of every radial; a small hole which allowed the D10 to snake through before hammering them into the ground under tension.  Continue reading →