Thanks Paul.... that's the info I needed. Have used some pretty small wire
with 100 watts before but I wasn't sure if I needed something heavier just to
avoid some kind of electrical failure with the high power ie 'meltdown!'. I'm
mainly concerned about weight on a fiberglass mast. The mast should be easy to
take down and put up so if anything breaks repairs should be easy. Sounds like
maybe I could even get by with 18 guage and will do some research on what's
available.
Thanks everyone for advice. I wish I was 1/2 wl from the ocean for a vertical
but no such luck, hence the doublet. But, I've used them from Costa Rica and
Jamaica with 100W and had pretty good luck.
73, Gary KT0A
From: N1BUG <paul@n1bug.com>
To: "towertalk@contesting.com" <towertalk@contesting.com>
Sent: Sunday, December 3, 2017 3:23 AM
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] guage of wire for 500 watt antenna?
Physical strength is probably the main factor. I successfully ran
1500 watts into an inverted V made of a single conductor from of
WD-1A field wire. I believe it is slightly larger than 20 AWG. It
has four tinned copper strands and three steel strands for strength,
along with some *very* tough insulation. I've had no problems with
this. I used this wire because it is strong and relatively light
weight. It was an inverted V at the top of a 25 foot fixed aluminum
mast sticking out of a 75 foot tower. I needed relatively small,
light wire as big stuff would have broken or bent the mast. In the
past I have run similar power into inverted V antennas using all
copper wire of similar or smaller size, but wire breaking in storms
was a problem.
Paul N1BUG
On 12/02/2017 05:00 PM, Gary Slagel via TowerTalk wrote:
>
>
>
> I'm hoping to get to Belize to work ARRL DX CW contest this year and I'd like
> to take my Elecraft KPA500/KAT500 and operate 500 watts. I will be at a
> friends house and not next to the ocean so I'm thinking of getting a doublet
> up in the air as far as I can on a fiberglass pole, feeding with 450 ohm
> ribbon and tuning it on 10 thru 40 and maybe 80M.
> The fiberglass pole won't take too much weight so I'd like to go as small as
> I can on the wire. Any suggestions or input?
> Thanks, Gary KT0A
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