John, N9JG wrote:
The last time I installed a wire antenna for 80 meters was in the mid 70s.
At that time the wire of choice was #14 (or perhaps #12) solid enameled
copperweld (now called copper clad) wire. Yes, the wire was kinky, fussy to
install, but it had high mechanical strength, excellent electrical
properties, and it lasted for many years.


Any advice, recommendations, or links to wire sources will be greatly
appreciated.

John, N9JG


Home Depot, Lowes, or any other local Borg...
I've been using ordinary, stranded 12 guage THHN house wiring. It's
insulated (yes, you do need to adjust length a bit for the insulation),
comes in a variety of colors (I prefer black or blue) and is strong
enough for most any antenna you'll likely put up. With fixed corner
posts, I ran a 800 foot loop through and over trees without any
problems, and have run at least one 160M half wave without any issues.
Note that I'm not in a heavy icing area, as my temperatures rarely get
even close to freezing where I live now (Hawaii), but many others have
also used stranded household wire to good effect. If your antenna isn't
in the clear, the insulation helps. Given a tree on one end, I've used
a pulley at the top with a rope connected to the antenna end, with a
bucket of sand on the other end. The bucket moves up and down as the
tree moves, and the last time I used this approach (in Washington state)
the rope lasted 5 or 6 years before I needed to replace it.

Good Luck,
--Rick AH7H