Jeff
Insulated wire is your only option since you don't have the confidence to
put up an antenna that MIGHT fall. You're gonna have aantennae fall many
times in your life. I put up a tower that shoudl never have fallen. At
least not until a contracting crew came along and loosened one of my uy
wires so they didn't have to work around 'the problem'. If I had caught the
fella doing his work on it during the night, Ida shot him. But that's
another story.
This suggestion for insulated wire might make someone shudder but it is a
good option if you are enterprising and have some balls. Go to your local
cable tv company and ask them if you can go dumpster diving for some 75 ohm
coax that they have thrown away (all cable companies discard old coax). USE
THAT AS YOUR DIPOLE (INVERTED VEE). It is heavily insulated, has a
messenger wire so it will not stretch (in fact you can use the mesenger wire
itself as your radiator) and it is resistant to UV.
Have at it.
73
RoGrrr
Oh, BTW, the steel wire that is copper coated you mentioned has been
invented. It's commonly known as CopperWeld. That 2 conductor phone line
outside is what that likely is.
++++++++
Jeff wrote:
Using insulated wire is certainly an option. This is the first HF
antenna I've put up so I'm just beginning to explore what is available
in terms of materials. The use of insulated wire begs a couple of
questions I've been looking into.
Is insulated copper coated steel wire available to minimize stretching
under tension?
What insulation materials will hold up through a long period of UV
exposure?
As a beginner here all of the information I'm looking for isn't
immediately at my finger tips. That's why I'm looking into a number of
options and asking questions.
Thanks!
-Jeff
KE7FRJ
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