Another question. My Beverages run through forest. Falling trees caused many wire breaks and high maintenance until I started using strain disconnects at all ends. I use a "fuse" link of #18 soft cop
I use good end insulators, and bring the wire down from the end insulator without a splice. The end insulators are anchored to things that the Beverage cannot pull over. I use at least a dual loop o
I understand why Paul does what he does. If your Beverages run through rough terrain, as mine do, it can be a real challenge to walk the Beverage to check and repair it. And as I get older it gets to
Hi Paul, That's good. Better than having to splice a wire or worse, ladder-line! For connections to boxes, "5-way" binding posts on the box and solder-type banana plugs on the wires work well. Fill t
A time domain reflectometer (TDR) allows you to check all major components (feedline, transformer antenna and termination) of your Beverage antenna from the comfort of your hamshack. 73 Frank W3LPL -
Mine run through very rough, uneven, steep, overgrown terrain with plenty of swampy muck in places. I can diagnose most end disconnections from the shack by looking to see which directions are not wo
When you replace the blade connectors, first solder them in place and them wipe them all over with automotive silicone grease, leaving a thin layer, using a small stiff artist's brush. Then push them
I see now. This is exactly the problem I have with Wireman stranded ~400 ohm ladder line. After a few years, if water gets inside, conductors rust through. Heat from soldering also seems to remove t
I do that with my MFJ-259. :-) Sweep a wide range and look at peaks and nulls, or use distance to fault. Dips repeat at 1/2 wave intervals. The firmware inside converts that to feet on distance to f
That is crazy! It sounds like they're using something like MIG welding wire. I thought I'd heard everything. Another potential issue I see with wire like that is that the RF is bound to penetrate tha
You can clean up silicone residue using acetone. Acetone will etch many plastics though so test it on the material you want to clean before using it. -Bill not to skin dissolving have _______________
Roger that, but not sure I want to use acetone on clothes if it etches plastic. Lot of cloth has synthetic thread blend in the fabric. Thanks for the tip. 73, Guy ____________________________________
I was thinking more along the lines of cleaning up those "darnit! I didn't want to get silicone on *that* part of it!" type things.... If you get it in your clothing there's not a lot you can do. -Bi
Yeah, but when it's broke, you still gotta crawl up and down the ravines and across the creek to fix it. :) So it can make the repair a lot easier if you can confine the break to an easy to reach loc
If the WD-11A is so weak and a repair problem why not support it on one of the higher strength fishing lines as a messenger? Carl KM1H _______________________________________________ UR RST IS ... ..
Typical "fishing line" is made of nylon. Nylon will stretch far more than the steel in the WD-11A and will be of limited usefullness as an additional strength member as a result. This is a similar pr
If water gets into WD1A, the three steel strands rust through in less than 6 months. Sometimes much less. The four tinned copper strands deteriorate and eventually break also. I'm not a metallurgist,
Just a clarification here: WD1A is plenty strong until a behemoth tree falls on it and breaks it. The splice then leads to a new failure point unless you can be 100% certain of keeping water out of t
I guess I should be thankful that all mine are run on land that maybe has a 10' variation but it is all heavily wooded. I also look carefully at the antenna path and try to avoid trees that slope in
Re: Topband: Beverage strain auto-disconnectsOf course it stretches if its stressed but it also adds to the total strength. I would expect the WD-11A and the nylon line to be supported at regular int