I have found what I believe to be somebody’s multi band GP on Aston hill. G / CE -005.
I would guess it is for 20 / 17 / 15 Meters. Black wire onto a spade connector.
If it is claimed ? I shall post it. Otherwise I think it would look pretty good in my next hombrew project !
Jonathan
G/CE-005 is known as “Wendover Woods” not Aston Hill
I don`t really care for a futile debate Colin. Technically speaking the trig point area is on “Aston Hill” and Wendover woods is on the opposite side of the hill.
The Mountain Bikers seem to have it right.
OT. Lost item is the purpose of the post.
Jonathan
Sorry Colin, but Jonathan is right. If he found the item close to the trig point, then he was on Aston Hill. This is quite a distance from the true summit of “Wendover Woods” (Haddington Hill) G/CE-005, but still comfortably inside the (relatively flat) activation zone, and hence the preferred operating spot of many activators.
Maybe, but if you had “Wendover Woods” in the title of the post more SOTA activators would know where you were referring to, and it’s SOTA activators that you want to attract to the post.
But surly this would then state a incorrect position of “me” being on, as Tom correctly states - Haddington Hill rather then Aston !
;).
Done, For those seeking a little more clarification.
Jonathan.
The radials you’ve found sound just like the ones that come with a “Superstick”. I think I saw one of them featuring in one of M0JCQ’s EA8 videos, and it seems G/CE-005 (whatever you call it) is one of his common haunts…
73, Rick M0LEP
I had a feeling it could belong to James.
No doubt he will reply here.
Thanks Rick.
Jonathan
I think I saw one of them featuring in one of M0JCQ’s EA8 videos, and it
seems G/CE-005 (whatever you call it) is one of his common haunts…
That’s where the bloody thing went!! I was wondering this when I unpacked the vertical in EA8! Very well observed as well Rick 
I have made my own custom radials for the SuperStick so I didn’t miss it too much, I was more curious about where it went in the first place. One of the hazards of packing up in the dark when cold and wet is that you don’t easily see black wire in long grass!
I had a feeling it could belong to James.
Thanks for offering to post Jonathan, but you can bin the radials, they really are garbage. The difference between using these supplied radials and my custom ones is like night and day, it’s criminal they are supplied in the first place 
The only good thing was the spade end connector, I used poor crocodile clips on the customs and they pull loose quite easily.
Cheers,
James M0JCQ
The main problem is they only supply one thing with exactly three radial wires on it (cut, IIRC for 10, 15 and 20), when what you need is three or four wires for every band (well, for 20 and up, anyway; the beast becomes a low wattage heater at anything lower).
Exactly Rick. What I ended up doing was creating 8 radials cut for 20m (lowest band I intend to use with this antenna) and this seems to work very nicely for 20-10m. I also made them from yellow wire so I (& others) can see them on a summit and not leave them behind 
Have you tried it with the radials elevated?
It would be useful to arrange an antenna shooout sometime where we could setup a number of antennas on the same summit and see how they work. And yes, I’m aware antenna performance testing is mired with difficulties but you can gather fairly useful info quickly by setting up several and using RBN to see what is happening. Grabbing the data from RBN and saving it for later analysis is easy, the hard part is having all the antennas setup at the same time so you switch quickly between them.
I have recently built a 1/4 wave for 14m. I say 14m because that is what the wavelength should be for 15m,
mathematically anyway.
It has been by far the most satisfying antenna to make. Five pieces of multi strand wire cut to approximately 3.5m soldered onto a N-type chassis connector. 12W had raised a small VE pile up, I was really pleased.
One of things that surprised me was the flat bandwidth that it gave.
One wire per band on a single spade (poor current distribution) and on the floor is hopeless. I raise mine in the air from the top of the pole. Like many others do, the radials then have a 2.5m clearance. I might try a 5/8 wave next but that won’t equate to a 50 Ohms match so I doubt with a tuned circuit it would be as efficient.
If you have your tablet you can use the WebSDR’s that are around to get a real time check with it.
There are many possibilities with verticals. I want to try a crossfire phasing system with two verticals eventually, or maybe alternative delay line switching.
No problem, with your permission I shall recycle it into hook-up wire !
I needed some more black wire anyway 
Jonathan
I think radials or counterpoises are “black magic”! I’ve tried them on an antenna and have seen improved performance in one location and then they’ve been rubbish in another location (no broken connections found)!
By the way, my understanding is that if the wire runs along the ground it’s a radial, if it’s raised it’s a counterpoise - or is that over simplifying the difference?
Nice that Jonathan found and sought the owner of rails/conterpoise in any case.
The way the Superstick website sells both radial and counterpoise sets as “Superwire”.
http://newsuperantenna.com/Super-Antenna-Options-Accessories/
73 Ed.
How SuperAntenna compares with a long wire on a fishing pole? (long wire cut in a ‘good’ length and with 9:1 unun + tuner)
Are verticals better?
Yes that does sound more accurate. I guess I just think of radius about a point i.e in a circle.
Andy wrote in a post awhile back that if you are over rocky ground you will find the performance worsens.
I believe it is down to coupling capacitance to ground itself. The obvious solution to me would be to put more radials out which increases the area and normalises the coupling. Have not been in that situation yet. The ground has always been damp and uniform seemingly.
Theres no black magic in RF design, your just seeing the laws of Physics. At least that is what my boss tells me 
Jonathan.
Totally agree Ed. I made a 10/14MHz vertical along the lines suggested by Andy a few years ago. It worked fine in my back garden, but when I took it to Portugal it would not tune no matter how I played about with the configuration and I had to isolate myself from the key which had RF on it. Now I use an auto-ATU which has totally eliminated the RF problem and virtually guarantees a match, but still on occasion an antenna will play up. Then on the next hill it’s fine. Bizarre!
Life would be boring if everything ran smoothly.
73, Gerald G4OIG
Yap, the unpredictable ground is the reason I designed my portable vertical with 3 bundles of radials, each consisting of 4 wires resonant on different bands.
Usually I clamp the aerial to objects at ‘some’ height above ground and fix the radials at the walking poles. What I experienced is, the higher (above ground) the antenna (incl. radials/counterpoise) is, the better are the DX signals.
When I have to put the antenna on the ground, I untwist the bundles and spread all the radials on the ground.
Ahoi,
Pom
Edit: It’s a 4-band antenna, I forgot to mention.
There is a page on the net where somebody has used an RF clamp meter to measure the currents through each radial on different ground conditions. Its interesting because the currents on a bad plain are very unequal per radial from what I remember. As you say the higher the better. Some suggest bringing the ground plain out on an 90º angle first before droping down futher.
Jonathan
Why that?
When portable I’ve never cared about the angle which I thought just affected the impedance.