In article , David
wrote:

JoanD'arcRoast wrote:
Friend of mine bought an old farmhouse in the country. A tenant 30
years ago worked for telco, and used to throw things away in the woods
behind the house. I now have approximately 700 feet of black outdoor
telco line. It looks like zipcord or 2-conductor appliance wire. It has
a *very* tough jacket; the copper hasn't oxidized *at all*. The longest
contiguous piece is 240', the second is 140'. 2 more are about 100'
each. 3 more smaller pieces. I just finished untangling it.

I live in the 'burbs. Nine 100' Loblollies; Six 80' hardwoods. Back
property edge ends in a stream, eight feet down in a gully. Wind
recently brought down my horizontal loop and my TTFD, so in effect, I'm
(mentally) starting over.

What would you do? Unzip and solder the phone line for a 1000' Beverage
fastened with zip-ties to the shrubbery above the stream? (I doubt any
neighbors would even notice the wire.)

Are there any good antenna designs that take advantage of zipcord?

-j

PS: I'm going to repair my TTFD and hang it along the stream bank. That
should provide a good ground plane, neh?


That stuff is almost impossible to "zip" apart.

Tough as nails.

Twist and solder the
conductors together at both ends of the 240' piece . Get one end real
high up, hook the other end to the radio. It'll kick serious butt.

I may do that, except I've got some toroids and coax to the stream, so
I'll try to get the entire antenna 70' away from all dwellings...
-j