You can also connect  any metal fencing or other large metal stuff to your 
ground system.

Check the antenna manual to get an idea of what the  2:1 bandwidth should be 
on each band.   A poor or lossy ground system will give you a low swr over a 
larger portion of the band, but  don't be fooled by this.  Most of your 
power will be heating up the earth.   Put in the best ground system you can, 
and  when you see bandwidth close to Butternut's specs you will be putting 
more power into the air.

73, Steve KW3A

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gery Gaubert" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, November 06, 2008 4:41 PM
Subject: antenna work this weekend


>I am goi9ng to try the radials out this weekend.  I'll try the pool and 
>the=
> wires and what ever else I can find.  Will the swr, total watts or 
> anythin=
> g else be effected by the placement of the radials?  I want to make this 
> as=
> scientific as I can.  I would assume that the swr would be higher and the 
> =
> total watts and reflective power would be less for a poorly grounded 
> vertic=
> al.  I would also assume that the rf noise would be greater with out the 
> ra=
> dials.  I guess good old experimentation will help here.
>