Hi, John.
You seem to be confusing radial wires with ground screen wires. Radial
wires must be insulated from the ground because they need to be
specific lengths for the frequency they are cut for. The ground screen
is made of non-inslated wires on the ground surface, or buried slightly
under it.

I think the "staples" you are refering to are just wire "hair pins" to
hold the wire in contact with the soil. Where you live, grass, etc.
should grow over the wire in no time! Here in the desert, rocks are
used to hold the wire down.

There was a commercial AM radio transmitter/tower behind my place. I
salvaged many hundreds of feet of #16 bare copper wire from their
ground screen. It was just under the surface and held in place with
lava rocks. The tower base was concrete with 8" wide copper flashing
between the base and the tower. It was soldered to a copper mesh around
the concrete base. The ground screen wires were just twisted into the
copper mesh.

Our neighbor said the whole thing was a wonderful lightening rod!!!

Paul, KD7HB
Redmond, OR

John Ferrell wrote:
As I continue my slow study of vertical antennas I am nearing the
point where I need to plan a radial system. It is no big surprise that
Everything I am doing has been done before but this is intended to be
a learning experience.

The red North Carolina clay varies widely with the seasons, I hope to
be ready when the ground softens up to where I can bury the radials.
The current plan is to build a mechanism that will allow me to do the
job from the seat of my tractor. I would prefer to not use fence
staples because I expect they would forever plague me in my tractor
tires.

The question:
I seem to be the only one inclined to use electric fence wire for
radials. I know from experience that the galvanized steel 17 ga will
last in excess of 10 years. I have found the Aluminum to be lacking in
strength when I use it for antenna experiments. Both are available
for less than $45 per mile.

My notes on the project are at
http://dixienc.us/28FtVert/28FtVertical.htm

The second page is recent.
Not much "meat" for the guru's, but may be interesting reading or
reference links for the curious.

John Ferrell W8CCW