I think with a thick wire like that you pick up a lot of weight and
windload with virtually no electrical advantage. The nice thing about
steel is that it has much higher fatigue resistance. I built one once
in the San Sevaine and it withstood 3 days of sustained hurricane
force winds with no ill effects. 120 deet. House to eucalyptus tree
with a glass gallon jug full of water for the tensioner weight.

On Tue, 25 Jan 2005 10:05:31 -0500, beerbarrel
wrote:

On Tue, 25 Jan 2005 14:43:38 GMT, David wrote:

Use 23 g steel wire (available at any hardware store). If
weight-tensioned properly it'll stand up to anything.

On 24 Jan 2005 21:33:17 -0800, "Michael" wrote:

I want to build a long wire antenna for AM use, and run it from the
peak of my house to the peak of my barn. That will give me about 120
feet of antenna running basically north/south. I've never done this
before, so I'm looking for advice. I know enough to use ceramic eggs to
string the antenna ends, but how do I terminate the ends so that 1) the
end at the barn supports the tension; and 2) the end at the house
supports the tension and allows a connection to the radio? Also, how do
I connect a lightning arrestor to the antenna and how do I properly
connect the coax to the antenna?

Sorry if these are very basic questions, but I'm just starting out at
this.

TIA

Michael




mount insulators on both ends. Tie one end off with a short piece of
rope to your house. Mount a small pulley on the other end at the fixed
location i.e.the barn. Tie another piece of rope on that end and
thread it through the pulley. Tie a bucket onto the rope and add some
weight to it. That will keep tension on the antenna while allowing it
to move somewhat. I used 12 gauge insulated solid copper house wire
between 2 trees in the same configuration. It works great for me.