--- In topband-helical@..., John Bastin <bastinj@...> wrote:
>
> For comparison, my vertical is using a 20-foot (slightly over 6 meter)
> piece of 2.5-inch (6.35 centimeter) PVC tubing, wound with about 260
> feet (about 80 meters) of number 12 insulated wire with three 18-foot
> (5.5-meter) wires extending out from the top for a capacitance hat,
> ground-mounted over 54 radials reaching to the property lines, lengths
> ranging from 45 feet (13 meters) to 130 feet (40 meters).
>
> I'm running 500 watts; so far I've worked 46 US states (missing
> Wyoming and North Dakota; Alaska and Hawaii are "countries" in this
> contest) and 36 countries. best distances from here seem to be OM, HA
> and 9A contacts, all around 4600 miles (about 7400 kilometers). The
> Hawaiian contact is about the same distance in the other direction.
>
> I've been very happy with the performance of the helical vertical this
> 160-meter season; it's done a very good job on my relatively small
> city lot.
>
> 73,
>
>
> John Bastin K8AJS
> bastinj@...

I'm sure I'm not the only one to ask this - how do you fit a 130 foot
radial on a "small city lot"? The UBC standards in the US now define
"standard city lot" as 4,000 square feet, which often is 40 X 100
feet, the goal being to fit maximal number of houses on a
street...short frontage.

On the other hand, I know about over-sized radials. When I had my
last city lot (50 X 70 feet), I was able to string a few radials along
the lower support boards of neighbors' fences, and had one radial that
was over 200 feet long - went across four lots. Naturally, things
always go better if you're on good terms with the neighbors.

I was only able to get into the contest briefly at the very start, and
I had not time this year to put together anything specific for 160. I
was using a standard 80 meter dipole (I'm no longer on a city lot, so
I have room for such), at about 30 feet. My tuner was not up to the
task, so my rig was operating into a 6:1 SWR and cutting back to about
15 watts, and obviously a good bit of that was reflected back to the
rig. I am pleased to say that one of my QSOs was a full
coast-to-coast, from Oregon to Maine. A real success for CW and the
good ears of those Northeast contest teams.

Dave W8NF