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Re: [TowerTalk] Copper Wire For Antennas

To: Jim Brown <jim@audiosystemsgroup.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Copper Wire For Antennas
From: Hank Garretson <w6sx@arrl.net>
Date: Wed, 28 Dec 2016 12:09:34 -0800
List-post: <towertalk@contesting.com">mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
On Wed, Dec 28, 2016 at 11:09 AM, Jim Brown <jim@audiosystemsgroup.com>
wrote:

> There's another very practical issue with the use of ordinary copper wire
> for antennas hung between supports -- copper stretches!  I found that my
> high dipoles strung between trees at 130 ft with the tension needed to keep
> then sort of horizontal with 160 ft or so of RG11 trying to drag them to
> the ground stretched enough that I must lower them and circumcise them
> every few years.
>
> A far better solution is to buy #8 solid bare copper from your local big
> box store and hard draw it to #9. In effect, you're pre-stretching it. :)
> Pretty simple. lay out 200-250 ft of it, tie one end to an immovable object
> (tree, utility pole) the other end to a trailer hitch on your towing
> vehicle, and very slowly pull while an assistant observes. When it breaks,
> coil it up and repeat.  With assistants, I've done this for four 1,000 ft
> spools, each of which yields about 1,200 ft of #9. :)
>

Do you have a trick to make sure it breaks at one end or the other instead
of the middle?

73,

Hank, W6SX
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