On Jun 12, 6:05*pm, dave wrote:
RHF wrote:
To Solder or Not Solder the Ends of Stranded Antenna Wire ?

I was taught many years ago that it was always
a good Idea to Solder the Ends [1/2"~1" of my
Stranded Antenna Wire to Electrically Bond
them on both Ends in case any individual strands
should break.

+ Plus on the Feed-End the Soldered Stranded Wire
made for a better Mechanical Connection to the Hardware.

* Also the claim is that the Solder& *Iron/Steel/SS
'connection' was less likely to Corrode then Copper
& *Iron/Steel/SS.

? Is Soldering the Wire Ends common practice ?

=Alternatively= I have been told to only Solder the
Stranded Antenna Wire at the Feed-End; and
then Tie-a-Knot in the Far-End about an Inch or
two from the End {Overhand Knot or Loop Knot}
-and-then-to- Separate-out the individual wires into
a Porcupine {half-ball} so that the Static Electricity
could bleed-off and reduce some of the the static
'noise' on the Antenna Wire.

? Does splaying the Far-End Antenna Wires really
help to Bleed-off the Static build-up on the Wire ?

thinking about the things i do . . .
and the why of it all ~ RHF
* .

Use a thimble and clamps to secure the wire mechanically to an
insulator. *Then solder your 9:1 balun hot primary positive lead to the
antenna wire. *You'll need still air, or a 100 Watt iron.

* * * Clarification * * *

Yes the Antenna Wire goes around {thru}
the End Insulator first.

It is the free "Tag" End that gets Soldered
and Secured to the Matching Transformer
Hardware or Wire; or to the Center Wire of
the Coax Cable.

Same on the Far-End the Antenna Wire goes
around {thru} the End Insulator first. Then the
free "Tag" End that gets Soldered about two
Inches back for 1/2" ~ 1" and the un-soldered
Tip Wires are spread-out to bleed-off the Static
[ESD]

Clearly Solid {Single Strand} Wire does not
need to be Soldered.

Most likely common 7-Strand {12-Strand}
Two Layers 1+7 -or- Two Layers 3+9
commercial Electrical Wires may or may not
need to be Soldered to get every Strand in
the Bundle 'connected' and working as one
"Bonded" Antenna Element.

But the 19-Strand commercial Electrical Wires
are usually Three Layers of 1+7+12 and not
all of the Wires may be 'connected' without
Soldering them all together at some point
{spot} on the Length to Electrically "Bond"
them as one Wire.

Now when using a Stranded Antenna Wire like
Flex-Weave with 168 Strands or 259 Strands
http://www.radio-ware.com/products/fw.htm
-imho- Soldering can help in getting each and
everyone of those 100+ Individual Stranded Wires
'connected' and working as one fully "Bonded"
Antenna Element.

~ RHF