Tractor Supply has 1/4 mile rolls of 17 and 15 ga Al fence wire. Had an 80
inverted V up for 5 years. No extra stretch, but not under extra tension.
Used it to hang deer net between post for the garden. Cranked on turn buckles
until it was guitar string. No stretch, still up and tight.
Sent from my iPhone
On Sep 17, 2015, at 12:15, Grant Saviers <grants2@pacbell.net> wrote:
I've had (surprisingly) good luck with aluminum fencing wire for top band
elevated radials - 8 x 125' in a forest with a lot of falling debris. I used
12.5 ga, and its been up 3 years. 9ga is also available. Yesterday, I lowered
several radials for an arborist to remove a tree and all were as tight as
originally installed. I had a roll of 10ga Al coated hard steel wire I thought
would be necessary, but it was nearly impossible to work with.
Perhaps there is a big difference in suppliers, as alloy and temper make a huge
difference. I agree that aluminum will stretch more than good USA made high
tensile barb wire, but can be made to about equal in yield point to softer
steel wire and maybe some of the Chinese barb wire.
re "Copperweld" there are pretty useless Cu flash plated copper colored steel
wires, and then real Copperweld such as available from DavisRF.
http://copperweld.com/en/products/metals/ccs.html
Then there is the question: why would you care if a multi wavelength "V"
element stretched a bit, if you had a means to adjust the tension?
Grant KZ1W
> On 9/17/2015 8:02 AM, dw wrote:
> Thanks Ken,
> I didn't realize the aluminum stuff would stretch.
> They have it at lowes for electric fence wire, so I was assuming the
> stretching would be pretty much identical to steel wire.
> I can use steel wire and braze connectors onto it.
> Maybe that would be a safer bet that aluminum.
> Do they make a copper coated electric fence wire?
> I do have copperweld type wire for building wire antennas, but wasn't
> sure I would use it for this project.
> Don't think I have enough to do both sides.
> So I thought electric fence wire would be quick and easy.
> Duane
>
>
>> On Thu, Sep 17, 2015, at 04:50 AM, Ken wrote:
>> Patrick,
>>
>> Okay. You just said aluminum fence wire. I've used that for fencing and
>> it stretches pretty bad. Steel core, aluminum coated would be different
>> although myself I would go with copper coated (copperweld type).
>>
>> 73,
>> Ken WA8JXM
>>
>>> On 9/17/15 7:15 AM, Patrick Greenlee wrote:
>>> Aluminum coated steel wire is commonly used for electric fences.
>>> Although proper practice is to install it with low tension (as per
>>> vendor and MFG) that is not because of any failing in the wire's
>>> strength or resilience. It can take significant tension and last a
>>> good long time. One issue is the skin effect. Your lowest frequency
>>> of interest will penetrate into the wire to the greatest depth. You
>>> will get better performance if your skin depth does not exceed the
>>> thickness of the aluminum outer layer. I cant quote the formula for
>>> skin depth from memory but it is readily available.
>>>
>>> There has been a lot of this aluminum coated steel wire used for
>>> antennas with good success.
>>>
>>> Patrick NJ5G
>>>
>>>> On 9/17/2015 5:46 AM, Ken wrote:
>>>> Aluminum fence wire stretches easily under load. It needs to be
>>>> supported every ten feet or so, not ideal for long wire antennas. I
>>>> won't even use it for electric fences ;-)
>>>>
>>>> Ken WA8JXM
>>>>
>>>>> On 9/15/15 3:45 PM, dw wrote:
>>>>> I think I'll pick up some aluminum fence wire at Lowes tonight on the
>>>>> way home from work.
>> _______________________________________________
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