KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

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How to measure wire length

Posted: 11 Mar 2021 08:44 AM PST
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A recent post on the reddit /r/amateurradio, got me to thinking about a
better way to measure wire length here in my shack. Ive been using one of
two methods:

Laying the wire on my basement floor, where Ive marked off different
lengths.
Going out into the backyard and measuring the length using a 100-ft.
measuring reel.


These two methods work OK because I dont do it that often, but recently a
friend wanted 100-ft. of RG-8X off the 1000-ft spool I purchased from DX
Engineering a couple years ago. It was too cold and snowy out in the
backyard, so I had to measure multiple short lengths down in my basement.
That was a real pain in the butt. It took me more than a half hour to
measure the coax and then coil it up for my friend.

That reddit post stirred up that bad memory, so I decided to see if there
was something out there that could make my life easier. Of course, the
first thing I did was to search on Amazon.
Olympic 1410

The first thing that I found was the Olympic 1410 Cordage Measurer. This is
what the pros use. If youve ever purchased wire or rope at a hardware
store, chances are this is what they used to measure your purchase. This is
a great device, but it costs $450!
Komelon ML1810

Fortunately, there are less-expensive options. For example, you could
purchase a measuring wheel, like the Komelon ML1810 Measuring Wheel. This
device costs less than $30. The downside to this is that youd have to build
some kind of fixture to hold the wire tight to the wheel while youre
measuring the wire. That doesnt seem like it would be too difficult to do,
though. The upside is that you could then use it to measure other things
around the house, like your lot size or the length of your driveway.

Amazon also sells other types of meters with rollers and two wheels, but it
looks like these meters were designed to measure material. As such, theyre
calibrated in yards. I think that those would be more difficult to use.

A couple of the respondents mentioned that they had made marks on their
driveways and used those marks to measure wire lengths when they needed to.
Another mentioned that he used a laser distance measurer. Those seem like
good options, too, but I think Id still like to have something like the
cordage measurer. Maybe Ill buy the measuring wheel and play around with it.

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