I had to replace a 160m horizontal loop (525 feet) and decided not to use the original 4mm (0.16 square inch) PVC-covered wire with tin-plated steel, mainly because of the weight of copper placing a huge strain on the supports which rely on trees. The Kevlar stuff would be superior but expensive. This steel wire is plastic-coated, non-kinking and is reasonably priced. The drawback is that the resistance is about 26 ohms versus the 8 ohms of the copper. Am I sacrificing power with this, the output currents on all bands may be quite a bit lower now?

I could have purchased thinner copper wire, say 2.5 mm PVC-covered, but wasn't sure if it would continue stretching or even break. I took great care to reinforce the ends where you'd expect the movement nodes to be.

The original came down as fibreglass pole broke after it's guy rope frayed through after about 18 years.

Hugh (M0DSZ)