I use those yellow plastic electric-fence insulators for my Beverages
too. They seem to have a good survival rate out in the open -- while
some of the black ones, that I thought would have better UV protection,
broke down and fell apart in a couple of years.
The black ones are harder to see too. Good if you're trying to conceal
the antenna. Bad if you're trying to locate the insulator after the wire
breaks.
These insulators have a slot so the wire can just snap in yet slide back
and forth freely -- to allow for more stretch over the full length of
the wire when tree limbs fall on them. They actually have two slots, 180
degrees apart. Orient the insulator so one is on top when you nail it
in, and use that one for the wire.
One problem I have encountered is that after two or three years, many of
the trees have grown around the insulator and encapsulated the wire --
meaning it will no longer slide through the insulator. So I've started
to modify my mounting method by first nailing a small block of treated
wood to the tree, and nail the insulator into that. It will take a lot
longer to grow around the insulator now.
I also just run some of mine over tree limbs, without insulators. But
the tree sometimes grows around the wire that way too.
73/Jon AA1K
www.aa1k.us
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