I'd like to caution you against using plastic that's not intended for
outdoor use. Most types will deteriorate rapidly from the UV in
sunlight, and turn brittle and very weak in a short time. Even here in
western Oregon, most plastics become useless in a year or two, and in a
place like Denver (5000 feet high and lots of sun) you only get a few
months at most.

A better idea, in my opinion, would be to use fishing line as others
suggested, or make your own from a piece of ABS pipe or something similar.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

Cecil Moore wrote:
wrote:

I'm putting up a long wire antenna for a SW receiver. The area I live
in has severe restrictions, so I need to hide it, or at least have it
not be obvious. For the end insulators I was looking for small, about
1" long skinny plastic or ceramic insulators. I know they used to be
available, but I can't find them anywhere. Can anyone point to a
source for them? All I can find are 3" insulators with a 1" diameter.
These are much too obvious for me to use. Thanks.


Skinny insulators can be made from plastic coat hangers which come in
any number of different colors.

"Roy Lewallen" wrote in message
...
I'd like to caution you against using plastic that's not intended for
outdoor use. Most types will deteriorate rapidly from the UV in sunlight,
and turn brittle and very weak in a short time. Even here in western
Oregon, most plastics become useless in a year or two, & in a place like
Denver (5000 feet high and lots of sun) you only get a few months at
most.

A better idea, in my opinion, would be to use fishing line as others
suggested, or make your own from a piece of ABS pipe or something
similar.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

Cecil Moore wrote:
wrote:

I'm putting up a long wire antenna for a SW receiver. The area I live
in has severe restrictions, so I need to hide it, or at least have it
not be obvious. For the end insulators I was looking for small, about
1" long skinny plastic or ceramic insulators. I know they used to be
available, but I can't find them anywhere. Can anyone point to a
source for them? All I can find are 3" insulators with a 1" diameter.
These are much too obvious for me to use. Thanks.


Skinny insulators can be made from plastic coat hangers which come in
any number of different colors.

Roy et al.,

The polystyrene that plastic coat hangers are normally made from has a
moderately good ultraviolet resistance - much better than nylon
monofilament line.

But for a cheap, extremely effective, insulator which has excellent
ultraviolet resistance, cut the top off a PET soft-drink bottle (where the
screw threads are found). The dielectric properties are excellent and few
plastics fare better to ultraviolet and acid rain exposure than does
polyethylene terephthalate.

I have had a number of insulators up for years that were made from
fiberglass loaded PET tensile test bars. The only problem was dulling of
drill bits from the glass. A carbide tipped drill solved that problem.

73, Barry WA4VZQ