Tony VE6MVP wrote:
On Sat, 07 Oct 2006 03:25:03 GMT, wrote:

Antenna wire would be one of the lowest cost elements of a complete
system, which questions the cost effectiveness of savings.

Sure, but clothesline wire is easily available in this small town.
Copper wire means I'd have to search it out in the nearest big city.

Tony

All the wire antennas I've built for the last 20 years or so have
been made out of electrical wire from the local home improvement
store.

They alway seem to outlive my interest in them.

Just standard household electrical wiring? So purchase some two wire
(actually three wire if you include the ground wire) electrical cable
and use the black and white wires? Will the insulation withstand the
out doors?

Not any of the multi-conductor household electrical wire ("Romex"),
find a spool of insulated #14 single-conductor "household wire" at any
decent neighborhood hardware store. Here in the southern provinces it's
called "#14 THHN" which comes in both solid and stranded types and in a
multitude of colors. I prefer stranded wire because it's less prone to
bending fatigue failure than is solid wire. Theoretically

If push comes to shove dial up a local electrician and ask where he
gets the stuff.

Personally I wouldn't string the wire thru bare screw eyes, I'd use the
Radio Shack catalog number 15-853 screwin insulated "TV cable
standoffs" to support it.

Or do you strip off the insulation and use them bare?

Leave the insulation alone, might get ugly after awhile but it lasts
forever out in the elements and has no discernable effect on the
performance of the wire as an HF loop antenna material.


Tony

Brian w3rv

The local price at Home Improvement stores is less than $25 for 500
feet of 14 gauge wire. I use electric fence insulators from the farm
supply store.

I have been disapointed in the mechanical strength of the Aluminum
electric fence wire.


On 6 Oct 2006 23:05:03 -0700, "Brian Kelly" wrote:

John Ferrell W8CCW
John Ferrell W8CCW

On Sat, 07 Oct 2006 14:20:38 -0400, John Ferrell
wrote:

The local price at Home Improvement stores is less than $25 for 500
feet of 14 gauge wire. I use electric fence insulators from the farm
supply store.

Oh, ok. Electric fence wire. I hadn't thought of that.

Tony

On Sat, 07 Oct 2006 14:20:38 -0400, John Ferrell
wrote:

I have been disapointed in the mechanical strength of the Aluminum
electric fence wire.

Aluminium is not very good material for fence wire and not usually a
substitute for steel in general fencing as it lacks the strength of
steel.

There are fence wires made from a steel core (typically high tensile)
and an aluminium (or aluminium / ~5% zinc) coating, sometimes with a
polymer coating over the top. These products are appearing as the new
"longlife galvanised" fence wires. Commonly the aluminium thickness is
around 30 microns, way less than skin depth at low HF, so they can be
expected to perform about as well as the high tensile steel core.

There are other products with a 200 micron cladding of 60%
conductivity aluminium over a high tensile core, and they look a good
prospect for antenna wire, 80% RF conductivity and 10000% strength
compared to the same diameter HDC. For example Gallagher XL 2.7mm
diameter wire (200 micron aluminium cladding) should have the same
loss as 2.3mm dia HDC, but over 10 times the Gross Breaking Strength.

To determine their likely loss as antenna wires, you need to know the
coating thickness.

Owen
--

Electric fence wire is aluminum, comes on 1/4 mile, 1/2 mile and mile rolls,
works great for ground radials but is to soft for antennas, IMHO.

Best wire I have found for antennas is what the local phone co-op calls
"field wire". They lay it down during the winter when they can not trench in
a new copper line. In the spring they roll it up and toss it away after they
trench in the new line. This stuff is 7 strands of steel, covered with a UV
protective outer plastic shell. Stuff will last for years, stretch and
return to shape, and if you bundle enough together you can pull a car out of
the ditch in a pinch. Have had it up for years as a 40 and 80 meter dipole.
Hard as the dickens to work with, almost impossible to solder, but, it makes
a dipole even northeast Montana winters can not break, something to be said
for that.

Just my two cents worth.

Sam

On 6 Oct 2006 23:05:03 -0700, "Brian Kelly" wrote:

Not any of the multi-conductor household electrical wire ("Romex"),
find a spool of insulated #14 single-conductor "household wire" at any
decent neighborhood hardware store.

My cursory glance as I walked by the small town stores didn't see any
such but a few other stores, such as farm supply store, should have
such.

Personally I wouldn't string the wire thru bare screw eyes, I'd use the
Radio Shack catalog number 15-853 screwin insulated "TV cable
standoffs" to support it.

We don't have a Radio Shack store within a hundred miles. But I get
the idea. I'll go looking for some such.

Tony