On 9/9/2020 11:00 AM, Richard (Rick) Karlquist wrote:
Stainless steel is exceptionally lossy at RF. There are
no specs on just how bad the loss is, so you take your
chances if you use it. Copperweld would be a much
better "unbreakable" solution. That's what its made
I've had terrible experience with stranded copperweld. For at least ten
years, my "go to" strong antenna wire is #8 bare copper from the big box
store stretched about 20-25% to make it approximate hard drawn. My
lowest wires are 30M dipoles at 100 ft, the highest are 80/40 at 130 ft,
all fed with RG11, 100# weights and pulleys on one end of each. Never
had one break. This is in 200 ft redwoods that sway a lot in the wind,
so lots of stress, plus weight of about 170 ft of RG11.
#10 stranded THHN is pretty strong, but it stretches, so must be
shortened every few years, and it has broken at least once. The fancy
stranded wire that Davis RF sells is REALLY POOR for strength. I love
Davis RF, buy from them a lot, but both I and friends have had antennas
built with it end up on the ground within a year or two.
73, Jim K9YC
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