I agree! Both here in south Georgia and in Virginia I had 80m dipoles made
with copperweld wire. In both QTH's I had storms that felled the trees
holding up one end of the antenna wire, come down during storms and in
neither case did the copperweld ever break.
I also have never heard of OWL spacers being eighteen inches?? Where the
heck did that come from? Typically 600 ohm OWL requires only about four inch
spacing.
73,
Tom - W4BQF
-----Original Message-----
From: TowerTalk [mailto:towertalk-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of K8RI
Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 2013 11:59 PM
Cc: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] remote tuner Vs lumped constants
On 7/24/2013 11:34 PM, Gene Fuller wrote:
> I don't understand the problem with copperweld. I have three 160
> meter quarterwave slopers and three 80 meter bent vertical dipoles
> using alumoweld that have been up about 40 years with no problems. As
> I recall it is 20% aluminum.
> Gene / W2LU
>
What I had appeared to just be copper plated steel. It was listed as
CopperWeld. Whether it was the real stuff?
I see the definition as "hard drawn Copper welded to a steel core"
73
Roger (K8RI).
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "K8RI" <K8RI-on-TowerTalk@tm.net>
> To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 2013 6:55 PM
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] remote tuner Vs lumped constants
>
>
>> On 7/24/2013 2:53 PM, Jim Brown wrote:
>>> On 7/24/2013 11:25 AM, K8RI wrote:
>>>>
>>>> The fan dipole on 75 can give much wider, usable areas.
>>>> With SS amps I'd like to be able to QSY with all the knob twisting.
>>>
>>> Yes. It's easy to make wire spreaders by cutting 1/2-in PVC conduit
>>> into 18-in lengths and drilling holes for the wires. If one of the
>>> wires is bare copper, the spreaders can be held in place with wire
>>> looped across the spreader and soldered. I use hard drawn copper
>>> that I "make" by buying #8 bare copper from a big box store, tying
>>> one end around a tree and the other around a trailer hitch, and
>>> slowly stretching it until it breaks. The resulting hard drawn copper
has stretched by roughly 10%.
>>
>> I used plain old stranded "antenna wire" that I hah on hand. I too
>> used 1/2" conduit for a single end spreader about out 4' long
>> http://www.rogerhalstead.com/ham_files/AntennaSpreader1.htm
>> This is fed with LMR-400 using one of the current baluns described in
>> your tutorial http://www.rogerhalstead.com/ham_files/AntennaFeed2.htm
>>
>> That antenna is supported by ropes to large trees on the low end and
>> a rope through a pulley near the top of the 100' 45G. That rope is
>> then coiled up and tied off at the base of the tower making the
>> raising and lowering to prune quite easy. That antenna is under
>> several hundred pounds of tension.
>>
>> I've been thinking of using the same approach on the 160 half sloper
>> except it's end fed of course.
>>
>> I think these antennas with stubs might at least come close to what I
>> want.
>>
>>>
>>> I consider copperweld antenna wire a terrible choice for serious
>>> antenna work. My neighbor, W6GJB, built a 2-wire fan dipole using
>>> copperweld and RG8, and hoisted it between a couple of redwoods with
>>> pulleys on both ends and a weight on one end. It was on the ground
>>> the next day -- the copperweld broke. We rebuilt it with the hard drawn
copper.
>>
>> Only tried Copperweld once. Never purchased any more.
>>
>> I've also used that method to "hard draw" the wire, You can also use
>> a lever (pipe, wood, what ever) the wire will stretch easily, but
>> will reach a point where the force required rises rapidly. and you
>> don't have to break it, although breaking does guarantee it is as
>> hard as it's gonna get. <:-))
>>
>>>
>>> The Power Point shows another elegantly simple and effective method
>>> of broadbanding many resonant antennas that W6NL teaches in his
>>> classes at Stanford. With SimSmith, you can simultaneously model
>>> both SWR and loss, making it easy to optimize a design.
>>>
>>> 73, Jim K9YC
>>
>> 73
>>
>> Roger (K8RI)
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>>
>>
>>
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>
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