If it's in the center of the yard, they would be more or less spread equidistantly :)
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Of course the smart assed option would be to bring in a lot of Carolina red clay which is like an antenna mirror due to its high iron content.
;)
Actually, if you go just outside of the STL metro area in any direction you run into red iron-rich clay everywhere you go.. MO is full of iron.
As far as radials are concerned... something to consider is ground screen.
http://www.sherweng.com/documents/GroundScreen-sm.pdf
Here's a wild stealth antennas system. Very impressive.
http://www.ac0c.com/main/page_antenn...nna_array.html
another idea. might sound a bit wierd. if the tree is on his property and he can climb. imax at the top of the tree. (alot of cb'ers around here would slap the antron or imax up at the top of a 60ft tree and do pretty well)
With my 4-BTV, I'm sure it did...but not to enough of a degree that I ever noticed. I ran them in a bow tie because the antenna was only about 15-20' from the house. Another 15-20' on the other side was horse pasture, and I didn't want them tangled in the wire. So, that took care of having any radials running N-S. I put 36 random length radials, all running roughly E-W. They weren't really "random", all were at least 35' long (for 40M), I just didn't bother to measure them. With a ground mount, there is no need to have different radials for different bands. This is NOT true of an elevated vertical. If elevated, you need to have at least a pair of radials per band. You tune them the same way you do a dipole. For a ground mount, what matters is that they be there. Just make them all long enough for the lowest freq. and they'll work great on all bands above that. If you have to bend the radials, zigzig them, horse shoe them etc doesn't seem to matter. It may effect the feed point impedance a bit, but it'll still play - and play well (for a vertical). Don't try to compare its performance to a beam, because it'll really seem sucky by that measure. A good installation will equal or better a 1/2 wave dipole at most elevation angles. Where it really shines is on DX, due to a low radiation angle. For local work, you're better served by a LOW (less than 1/4 wave high) dipole.
^I see.. that makes sense. I don't need a perfect pattern anyway, so I think there is a very good chance I'll be able to make this work!
I also considered that, but that removes my concealment. This install has to be very stealthy, otherwise my anal-retentive neighbor to the north will whine and bitch no end and take her case to the HOA. She keeps her nose up everybody's asses around here, much to the dismay of the entire neighborhood. At any rate, concealment is the best option for my sanity.