Update....
After careful consideration of all the points raised here and also a
lot of thought on the mechanical and structural aspects of things, I
have decided to just go with ground mount setup with radials. I had
thought of building some type of lightweight vertical radiator and
mounting it atop the mast but I am trying to work with stuff I have on
hand. I can't afford to invest any money into buying any sort of
aluminum or other material to make such a radiator. As it is I will be
stripping insulation off of wire to make ground radials as I have no
bare copper. I once read somewhere not to use insulated wire for
ground radials.
One problem I'm going to have though is with the mast being mounted
against the house. This is a manufactiured home and I have a crawl
space under the house. In order to try and get the best results I was
thinking of actually running some of the radials underneath the house
in the crawl space. I f I don't do this I will have radials running
out in three directions and will have a whole area of the ground
covered up by the footprint of the house that has no radials. Hope
that makes sense.
Anyone see any problem with running radials on top of the ground
under the house in the crawl space area? Other than having to watch
out for them when I go under there of course.

On Feb 28, 6:18*pm, wrote:
Update....
*After careful consideration of all the points raised here and also a
lot of thought on the mechanical and structural aspects of things, I
have decided to just go with ground mount setup with radials. I had
thought of building some type of lightweight vertical radiator and
mounting it atop the mast but I am trying to work with stuff I have on
hand. I can't afford to invest any money into buying any sort of
aluminum or other material to make such a radiator. As it is I will be
stripping insulation off of wire to make ground radials as I have no
bare copper. I once read somewhere not to use insulated wire for
ground radials if you wanted them to be part of you lightning ground as well.
*One problem I'm going to have though is with the mast being mounted
against the house. This is a manufactiured home and I have a crawl
space under the house. In order to try and get the best results I was
thinking of actually running some of the radials underneath the house
in the crawl space. I f I don't do this I will have radials running
out in three directions and will have a whole area of the ground
covered up by the footprint of the house that has no radials. Hope
that makes sense.
*Anyone see any problem with running radials on top of the ground
under the house in the crawl space area? Other than having to watch
out for them when I go under there of course.

On Sat, 28 Feb 2009 15:18:02 -0800 (PST),
wrote:

As it is I will be
stripping insulation off of wire to make ground radials as I have no
bare copper. I once read somewhere not to use insulated wire for
ground radials.

If you read that here in this group, put that writer in your
kill-file.

Save your time and energy and simply plant the insulated wire.

I f I don't do this I will have radials running
out in three directions and will have a whole area of the ground
covered up by the footprint of the house that has no radials.

You do what you can. The difference between doing it and not doing it
will be trivial on the other guy's S-Meter. Putting them under the
home, in the crawl space, is nice if you want to. It really depends
on HOW MANY total you are laying down, and HOW LONG they are before
your "total" coverage footprint matters.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

Does your Manufactured Home have aluminum siding & roof?...I had a HF6V
vertical mounted just off the side of my manufactured home at the roof level
& used the home for the ground & no radials. It worked great. My home was
24X60. If you go with the ground mounted go ahead & put them under the home
& don't waste time stripping the wire as the radial won't care either way.
You can also use the I-Beams that are under your home, just connect your
wire from your vertical to each of them also.
wrote in message
...
On Feb 28, 6:18 pm, wrote:
Update....
After careful consideration of all the points raised here and also a
lot of thought on the mechanical and structural aspects of things, I
have decided to just go with ground mount setup with radials. I had
thought of building some type of lightweight vertical radiator and
mounting it atop the mast but I am trying to work with stuff I have on
hand. I can't afford to invest any money into buying any sort of
aluminum or other material to make such a radiator. As it is I will be
stripping insulation off of wire to make ground radials as I have no
bare copper. I once read somewhere not to use insulated wire for
ground radials if you wanted them to be part of you lightning ground as
well.
One problem I'm going to have though is with the mast being mounted
against the house. This is a manufactiured home and I have a crawl
space under the house. In order to try and get the best results I was
thinking of actually running some of the radials underneath the house
in the crawl space. I f I don't do this I will have radials running
out in three directions and will have a whole area of the ground
covered up by the footprint of the house that has no radials. Hope
that makes sense.
Anyone see any problem with running radials on top of the ground
under the house in the crawl space area? Other than having to watch
out for them when I go under there of course.

wrote:
I once read somewhere not to use insulated wire for ground radials.

I once read somewhere that the moon is made of green cheese.
--
73, Cecil http://www.w5dxp.com
"Government 'help' to business is just as disastrous as
government persecution..." Ayn Rand

The home is made of wood with a shingled roof just like a stick house.
it's not a mobile home in the sense of one composed entirely of metal.
I never thought of connecting the metal I-beams underneath the floor
to the ground radial system, might be worth trying.
Just to clarify something. I misquoted what I had read about
insulated ground radials. Apparently what was written was that you
should not use insulated ground radials as part of lightning
protection system. That statement actually makes a little more sense.
I apologize for my mistake.
I guess I'm just going to start stringing out radials till I tire of
it and then quit. Maybe after a few days when I feel like it again,
I'll run a few more and so on and so on until I get to where I think
the antenna is performing well enough.
I do know enough about verticals and ground systems to know that at
some point I will reach the point of diminishing returns. Whether that
point is sixteen, thirty two or forty eight or some other number of
radials remains to be seen. I'll probably start with about sixteen and
see what kind of results I get with that.
I appreciate everyone's advice and input.
Tnx and 73,
Michael, W4HIJ