Good price on good antenna wire at Home Depot

[n0eq]

I stumbled across 500' spools of 18 ga copper stranded,
non-insulated wire at HD this morning for $29.

It's really flexible stuff. I put up an Inv V this
morning and was able to tie knots in the wire
just like that more expensive stuff.

It'll kink if you really want it to but generally it
goes where you tell it to go. Doesn't take a "set"
like solid wire.

At 6 cents/ft, I'll be a dipolin', extended zeppin,
wire yaggin kind of guy for quite some time :D


Craig 'Lumpy' Lemke

http://www.n0eq.com

[N2RJ]

Copper wire for wire antennas? Yipes!

I hope it's light enough because that thing will have a bigger sag than the average ham's paunch in no time. :wall

[n0eq]

Copper wire for wire antennas? Yipes!

I hope it's light enough because that thing will have a bigger sag than the average ham's paunch in no time. :wall

Hmmm. I guess I've never noticed a droop problem
(in my dipoles, not my waistline).

Does copper stretch and then stay that way?
ie, once it stretches (assuming mine will indeed stretch)
will tightening it up resolve it or does it change dimension
back and forth in weather/wind stress etc.

Aren't (weren't) good old telephone wires plain copper?


Lumpy

In Your Ears for 40 Something Years
www.LumpyMusic.com (http://www.LumpyMusic.com)

[kb2vxa]

I think you mean telegraph wire such as what may still be found along railroads in some places. It's hard drawn and doesn't stretch nearly as much as soft drawn, that flexible, non kinking stuff. Unless you go for single conductor hard drawn or Copperweld you'd be hard pressed to find copper that won't sag BUT unless you're scraping the ground to begin with it'll be your friend in a high wind.

[n0eq]

I think you mean telegraph wire such as what
may still be found along railroads in some places. It's hard drawn
and doesn't stretch nearly as much as soft drawn, that flexible, non kinking stuff...



This stuff from HD is 18 ga, copper stranded.

I've had it up on a couple of dipoles for 2 weeks now.
I don't see any change in droop factor and we've had
some 100 degree plus days, 60 degree nights, and
30mph winds.

The dipoles I put up are replacing the stuff that
blew down in the much stronger wind storm
we had a month ago. Probably 60 mph winds.
That blew cars over on the freeway. The wire
I was using was 17 ga solid aluminum hot wire
fence wire from the farm supply place. It's
cheap and simple to work with. I never saw
any kind of droop problem there either.

Maybe the droop only droops where the ice
and snow drips.
:chin:

Craig 'Lumpy' Lemke

www.n0eq.com (http://www.n0eq.com)

[kb2crk]

i have always used stranded copper wire for my dipoles and never had an issue.

[KJ6FOB]

I talked to a guy on 2 meters last night that said he bought 14 ga. insulated wire at Home Depot and has been using it for awhile. He loves it and says it works great. He bought it in 500' spools also.

Frank

[N8YX]

I talked to a guy on 2 meters last night that said he bought 14 ga. insulated wire at Home Depot and has been using it for awhile. He loves it and says it works great. He bought it in 500' spools also.

Frank
Welcome, Frank!

I have done the same - bought two 500' spools for constructing radials for my Hustler verticals. So far, so good...and I even had enough left over to build a couple fan dipoles.

[PA5COR]

500 Meter rolls of 1/10 inch aluminium wire used for fencepost and cattle fencing costs 60 euro's.

Strong, not soft alu, have a piece of 130 feet up in the wind for over 2 years now.

More costly as your find though...

At least i got a few rolls stainless steel welding wire 1.2 mm, for free.( 500+ meter lengths)

Twining 2 wires with 1 copper wire makes a very strong wire good to transmit with.

[KJ6FOB]

I talked to a guy on 2 meters last night that said he bought 14 ga. insulated wire at Home Depot and has been using it for awhile. He loves it and says it works great. He bought it in 500' spools also.

Frank
Welcome, Frank!

I have done the same - bought two 500' spools for constructing radials for my Hustler verticals. So far, so good...and I even had enough left over to build a couple fan dipoles.
Thanks for the welcome!

Was the wire that you bought insulated or non insulated?

[N8YX]

I talked to a guy on 2 meters last night that said he bought 14 ga. insulated wire at Home Depot and has been using it for awhile. He loves it and says it works great. He bought it in 500' spools also.

Frank
Welcome, Frank!

I have done the same - bought two 500' spools for constructing radials for my Hustler verticals. So far, so good...and I even had enough left over to build a couple fan dipoles.
Thanks for the welcome!

Was the wire that you bought insulated or non insulated?
Insulated.

I still have a spool end of it around here somewhere.

[KJ6FOB]

I talked to a guy on 2 meters last night that said he bought 14 ga. insulated wire at Home Depot and has been using it for awhile. He loves it and says it works great. He bought it in 500' spools also.

Frank
Welcome, Frank!

I have done the same - bought two 500' spools for constructing radials for my Hustler verticals. So far, so good...and I even had enough left over to build a couple fan dipoles.
Thanks for the welcome!

Was the wire that you bought insulated or non insulated?
Insulated.

I still have a spool end of it around here somewhere.
Nice to hear that the insulated works good and doesn't give problems. I'll have to give it a try when I get some HF gear. Thanks for the info..

[N8YX]

Nice to hear that the insulated works good and doesn't give problems. I'll have to give it a try when I get some HF gear. Thanks for the info..
My radials are all elevated, and the fan dipoles, random wires and such that I built from the spools are still up and in like-new shape 3 years after the fact.

If I was planning to run very long spans (such as full-length 75 or 160M dipoles, multi-wavelength Beverages, etc) I would take a serious look at Copperweld.

[W5GA]

I built a full size 160m dipole out of #12 house wire, worked FB.

[N8YX]

I built a full size 160m dipole out of #12 house wire, worked FB.
Solid or stranded conductor?

[ki4itv]

I miss Ol' BananaMan. :scared:

[KC2UGV]

Solid or stranded conductor?

House wire would be solid (If it's moderately new). In wall-wire (Riser) is solid :)

[N8YX]

House wire would be solid (If it's moderately new). In wall-wire (Riser) is solid :)
Then it would work well unless it's soft-drawn...too much sag, especially with ice loading.

[KJ3N]

I had to stop using #12 insulated from Home Depot because my 134 foot doublet would always break after a couple of wind events. I've had much better durability with The Wire Man's (http://www.thewireman.com/antennap.html) #523. The antenna has now been up 3 years at least and shows no indication of coming apart anytime soon. :agree:

[w3bny]

Bunneh uses 135' of #6 stranded copper and has no problems with sag. I did make some modifications to the tensioning system but even before the newest mods. it worked very well!