nighthawk, our first antenna was a vertical Hustler 5 BTV it required radials generally the more the better. I never had great luck with that antenna and ended up giving it away to a new Ham... he has been running it for 6 or 7 years now and is very happy with it... not sure if my very steep sloping yard was part of the reason the radials didn't seem to reflect the way I'd hope or not?
Since then we have put up a tower with beam antennas.... The tower is grounded with wide heavy copper straps going to ground rods on all 4 sides.... I don't think that was the grounding question you were asking about though?
I've gotten 2 bits of advice from our Elmers that really stand out... The first was from Wanda who knew I was freaked out about retesting for the Extra exam She told me to "Only remember the correct answers...".
The second one was "For every dollar you spend on your station invest 75 cents of it into your antenna system...". People get carried away with latest greatest gear... but none of that matters if you have a poor antenna system.
