I have some rather large steel cable ( 3/4 inch diameter) I was going to use for fencing at the BOL, but plans have changed and the cable is just sitting there. It's used anchor cabling that came from the marina I work at (fresh water) so it's rusted, but not rotted.
Pic of said cable


There's about 300 feet of it and I can probably get more as the marina replaces about a mile of cable each year. The issue with my current copper wire ground radials is cows. Yes, cows. My BOL is on open range and this is a "fence me out" state. I won't be fencing the entire area where the antenna is located so I need ground radials the cows won't destroy.
The plan is to cut it into shorter pieces, say 60 feet, and clamp them to a steel plate at the base of my vertical making the longest radial 120ft total. I will add more radials of different lengths as cable is available.

On a related note, I will be fencing in the area around the vertical radiator to "cow proof" it. How far away should the fence be from the radiator? I'm thinking a 4ft tall fence 10ft away from the radiator would be fine.
Thoughts?

Violent cows...who knew?

Heh, not violent, they like to drag their hooves and destroy my radial field.

Hmm what's in the soil?   In my corner of the desert it is very caustic, I wouldn't expect steel cable to live a terribly long time.   Some food for thought:   It isn't like a solid bar that would take centuries to eat through because the corrosives will be working on the individual strands, all at once.   So a 3/4" wire rope won't live much longer than a single 20 ga strand.

Not sure how caustic the soil is but you can see from the pic it's pretty much dust with volcanic cinder rocks in it. If it lasts 4 or 5 years I'll be happy. The issue I have with thin copper wire is the cows drag it all over the place and I have to spend an hour putting my radial field back in place not to mention the cost of the copper wire. The big steel cable is free and the cows will have a much harder time dragging it around.
I think I'll go ahead and make a base plate with a bunch of holes in it for "U" clamps to attach the cable. What could possibly go wrong?

It should work okay. The fence could go right up against the radials. Heck, connect it to them if it's conductive. Let it become part of the ground plane.

I see no reason why it wouldn't work. How well? never know till ya try. I always wondered if you could use a roll of that concrete reinforcement mesh wire as ground plane somehow. I know where a few rusty rolls are stashed.

I use a steel fence as a ground plane. When I move into my new house, I plan on putting down some epoxy coated fencing just under the grass to use as a nice big ground plane.


I don't see why it won't work for you, the steel has better conductivity than the ground.

Just be sure to grease the connections, you will most assuredly have some dis-similar metal corrosion.