chiGroundWires

An Easy Way to Install Ground Radials
by Brian, W9HLQ

In the past, I never seriously considered installing an extensive array of ground wires for my HF system due to the daunting task of making trenches to bury the wires. Having an array of ground radial wires has been a known need for this station, but the labor kept me from doing anything. I tried to address the problem by driving lots of ground rods around the tower base. This certainly is inadequate!

I have a typical city lot 70 feet wide and 110 feet deep with the house plopped in the middle. Getting a large number of long runs of wire for a radial "farm", will be a compromise at best. See diagram at bottom of the page. However, any wire that you can get down will immensely increase the efficiency of your 160 meter antenna system. Plan in running the wires where you can; making turns if you must to avoid trees, shrubs, and swing sets.

As mentioned in other articles, you will want to tie this radial system into your other grounds, such as the ground rods, water pipes (assuming they are copper or galvanized pipe), and the house electrical ground. This is referred to as the single point ground.

I use an electrical ground block used in electrical service boxes. See picture below. Mine was too big and I sawed about 6 inches off to give me about 24 screw attachment points for the radials. This block is attached to the tower with stainless steel straps. This becomes the central ground point mentioned above. Click here to see DX Engineering's radial mounting plate. Once things were wired in place I used water resistant spray Lithium Grease to seal out the weather. The grease looks messy and it is; but it is very easy to use and seems to do the job.


Grounding block	Block bolted to tower leg provides attachment points for the ground radials. Wide strap ties tower base to inside bulkhead grounding plate

If your lawn's grass is rather long, it might be worth while to mow the lawn fairly short. This will allow the wire radials to lie nearer the ground initially. Notice that within a few weeks that the grass will grow up over the wire and the wire will disappear! It is amazing and so simple to do. Suggestion: place the wires down in the late fall after your last mow. Then you have all winter for the wires to settle into the grass...and when the spring rapid grass growing occurs, the wires will be ready to be grown over. Works like a charm! Otherwise, get those wires down before the spring growth spurt.

Lay out your wire in the directions you wish to run the radials. It will help to remove the natural tendency for the wire to curl and kink up by attaching one end to a fence post or tree. Then pull the length of wire very hard to stretch and straighten the wire. This works best with #12, #14 or #16 gauge copper house wire. (You can use wire as thin as #20; see footnote). You can leave the insulation on. Start at the ground point and work out to the end of the radial wire. Consider using garden tools to bury the wires around your tower if appropriate. Continue by using the staples described below along the radial wire. Ground rods along the radials do no good for RF, however they will help with lightning protection.

Make the staples for the wire out of old coat hangers, #10 or #12 copper house wire, or I use #18 gauge galvanized steel wire. This steel wire is available in 110 foot spools from Ace Hardware in a handy dispenser pack. I cut 6 inches of wire and then bend it into a "U" which is used as a "staple". The two legs of the staple grab the earth well enough that the wire does not pull out. Place the staples about every 2 feet or more often if the wire fails to lay flat. Having damp soil will make the staple insertion much easier. Of course, you will need a lot of staples. I find making them while watching a long foot ball game is a good use of your time during the endless commercials.


Insert staples to hold wire down. Can carefully mow over wires after about a week's growth.	Use your free time and bend a supply of staples

Regarding the routing of the wires, they should radiate out from the common ground point in a fairly straight line. Don't meander around too much. Run some longer wires around the house each way, if possible to obtain a longer length. For 160 meters some runs of 160 feet is desirable. According to the QST article (ref. footnote below), plan on about 50 radials, ideally. Since my ranch house rambles over much of my lot, I was able to only get about 15 unique runs from the base of my tower. Still, I am able to put out a respectable signal on 160 from my 50 foot tower system. All of the wires I put down have long disappeared into the soil.

The connections are over sprayed with white lithium waterproof grease.
This has kept my connections corrosion free for years.
The copper block is separated from the aluminum tower by a stainless steel plate for corrision control

Now you are well grounded.....congratulations.

Notes: Excellent reference for your ground system is QST, August, 2003, Page 39; "Optimum Radial Ground Systems"