Using speaker wire for a dipole
 

wrote in message
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A local job lot store was selling 100' rolls of #18 speaker wire. I bought
as many as I could. I use it for not only hf antennas, but am making open
wire line with discarded Bic pens as separators (there was an article in QST
about this). I have had a lot of success with this.

----------------------------------------------

Pictures?

Using speaker wire for a dipole
 

I'll see if I can get pix on a web site I'm working on. You use cable ties doubled up inside the barrels to hold the wires. The Write Bros. pen barrels are about 5" not including the swage, and if you cut it in half, 2.5" should be ok for up to 10M.

Using speaker wire for a dipole
 

It is a lot of pens. My recently deceased aunt was housebound, and did a lot of puzzles, crosswords and such. She also did a lot of letter writing. She had saved all of her pens for me, and when I took over her house, I found several packages of Bic pens. With #18 wire you can get two spacers from each pen. Not to waste anything, you can remove the ink cartridges with pliers, and keep one or two barrels for writing.

Using speaker wire for a dipole
 

I thought the Write Bros built airplanes, not pens!

Irv VE6BP

wrote in message
...
I'll see if I can get pix on a web site I'm working on. You use cable
ties doubled up inside the barrels to hold the wires. The Write Bros. pen
barrels are about 5" not including the swage, and if you cut it in half,
2.5" should be ok for up to 10M.

Using speaker wire for a dipole
 

On Sun, 14 Aug 2011 22:50:41 -0600, "Irv Finkleman"
wrote:

I thought the Write Bros built airplanes, not pens!
Irv VE6BP

Nope. They write screenplay softwa
http://www.write-bros.com

Maybe he meant the Rite Bothers, who run a charter airplane service:
http://www.ritebros.com

Or, perhaps the Right Brothers, that do right wing conserative music
out of Nashville.
http://www.therightbrothers.com

In your heart, you know he's [wright|right|rite|write].

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

I tried to read all of these posts - but being dyslexic - after a hard days work, I have come to the conclusion - as others has said in the past, any answer with more then 4 replies - stay away.

There is several answers.
The first being that the wire must be at least 14 gauge in order for it to work properly.

I can go into all kinds of details about skin effect and how it all works - but you might just want a simple answer.

The answer is - that the wire does not have to be 100% copper - since the G5RV doesn't appear to be 100% copper - but a copper clad wire.

You do not want to use Stainless Steel - since it is a poor conductor.

To go one step further - even the electric company doesn't use solid copper wire anymore for their high tension wires going from the power generation station to the subs- they use something called Aluminum clad steet core - or ACSC for short.
http://www.astm.org/Standards/B502.htm

The bottom line is Aluminum, copper, bronze, gold, silver are all good conductors.

INsulated wire used as a dipole will radiate - no telling how it will radiate until you try it.
What you need to do is quit being so cheap and buy what you need and build your own antenna.

One very good antenna a ham friend of mine constructed for many of his ham friends is called a double bazooka antenna. Basically it is made out of old RG 8 coax.
http://www.radiowavz.com/html/double_bazooka.html

Because I don't know where you live, I cannot predict how a antenna will work for your situation. One consideration is wind sheer and another is storm damage - hence ice and snow will stretch copper speaker wire to the point of where it will not be resonant. Add to that the fact that it is not designed to be put under any type of strain - hence the longer piece of wire you use - the shorter the lifespan.
Not to mention - how would you join two pieces of speaker wire - when one piece is not long enough? Soldering - won't get it done. Especially if it gets struck by lightning.

Using speaker wire for a dipole
 

wrote in message
...
I'll see if I can get pix on a web site I'm working on. You use cable
ties doubled up inside the barrels to hold the wires. The Write Bros. pen
barrels are about 5" not including the swage, and if you cut it in half,
2.5" should be ok for up to 10M.

Will watch for info. Clever beyond anything I ever did!

Using speaker wire for a dipole
 

No sir, your radio already knows that trick. It will feel that it is being
cheated by you using speaker wire and will refuse to send RF out the antenna
jack. (I'm just kidding.) :-)

But seriously it should work just fine. Treat it as insulated 18 gauge wire.
I did use Radio Shack Flat copper Mega Speaker Cable as Ground Radials - I
zipped them in half and each package made 2 radial wires.

73 de KA4UDX,

---
Alan Spicer

"KD2AIP" wrote in message
...

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.

Using speaker wire for a dipole
 

I dont know about speaker wire but lamp cord works perfectly.you can even use it for feedline (approx 75 ohms). It will last 20plus years even in severe weather. In fact I am transmitting on 7120 on it right now. I cant remember when I hung it but I have lived here since 1986. Swr measured two hours ago is 1.2to1. It is 40m inverted V . This one is fed with coax which was kinda dumb since lamp cord is already balanced line.

VE3LYX Don