Based on personal experience, I suggest avoiding straned cooper clad
steel. A number of years ago,I had a bunch of low band wires made of
this stuff. As they swung in the breeze, the strands abraded each other,
exposing steel core. It then rusted and snapped. Back to solid copper
clad wire. Hard to work with, but nothing beats it for the long haul.
Barry W2UP
On 3 Oct 2002 Chuck Counselman wrote:
> >N1EU wrote:
> >>I haven't had luck searching online for info on tensile strength
> >> of garden variety hard drawn copper wire. I was hoping to compare
> >> 10-14 AWG copper versus copperweld, in stranded and solid flavors.
> >> I'm sure the numbers are out there, and would appreciate help
> > > gathering the info.
> >
>
> This doesn't answer your question, but I hope it's helpful and/or
> will provoke others to comment helpfully:
>
> 1. In an antenna, stranded wire lasts longer than solid wire of the
> same gauge. Solid tends to fail by fatigue, due to the
> stress-variation caused by wind etc.
>
> 2. It has been suggested that stranded antenna wire should be
> insulated, and where insulation has been removed for
> splicing/connections, the exposed parts should be sealed with
> CoaxSeal, Liquid Electrical Tape, or whatever, to prevent corrosion,
> because some RF current flows between adjoining strands.
>
> 73 de Chuck, W1HIS
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--
Barry Kutner, W2UP Internet: w2up@mindspring.com
Newtown, PA Frankford Radio Club
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