On Aug 1, 6:32*am, KD2AIP wrote:
Anyone have experience making a dipole from 18 gauge speaker wire? *I
have a whole lot of it lying around the house, and was wondering if I
could put it to some good use.

Well, not sure what gauge wire it is, but I've been using cheap
speakerwire for HF dipoles with no problems whatsoever. Not certain,
but I think this is the stuff I use he

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView...SUBCATID=992#1

My prime HF antenna started out as a coax-fed 40m half-wave (10m/leg)
dipole made of this stuff in an inverted-V configuration. I used a
home made 1:1 voltage balun at the feed point. Over time, I moved the
feed point to near the back of the tuner with a short 3in length of
coax, and ran a random length of 300ohm ribbon to the feed point of
the dipole.

Later after reading about the G5RV, I extended each leg to 16m long.
It is important to note that while similar to a G5RV, my antenna does
not feature the same length of ribbon as a G5RV. The antenna is not
mounted up high, the apex would be at gutter level (we have a two-
storey house here). Legs tie off no higher than 2m in the air. One
end ties off to a frangipannie (sp?) tree in our front yard, the other
to a piece of rope running to a macadamia tree in our back yard. I
have a feeling the frangipannie is helping form part of the antenna.

This antenna, while quite deaf I find on the 10m band, has worked into
VK5 on 15m, I have had contacts into ZL on 20m, and it works quite
well locally on 40m and 80m. I have had successful contacts using QRP
power levels on 80m with this antenna, and it is very easy to tune
there.

It has broken once or twice. It has never taken me any longer than
about 15 minutes to repair and get back up in the air. It's also
cheap enough to consider being disposable, should disaster truly
strike.

So I say, go for it … it might as well do something useful.

Regards,
Stuart VK4MSL