Topband: Radial Wire Sources

[George Taft]

Aloha!

The silent ones who also needed radial wire have diluged me with
requests for what we found.  He goes:

Go top www.comteksystems.com
de Joe, aa4nn

Which I did and got the following reply from Comtek;

Our #16 bare copper is on 1000 foot spools, and not detailed on our web
site. Our apologies for the oversight. It is beautiful and is not a big
seller since most hams do not wish to pay the price for it going in the
ground! Price is $39./1000 plus UPS.

Thank you for your inquiry.

73,

Jim Miller, K4SQR
Comtek Systems
http://www.comteksystems.com
4-Square Experts, Stack Yagi 
& Remote Antenna Switching Systems

>From AA1K;

Mendolsohn's in Dayton had a lot of spooled wire. But shipping large
quantities will add to the cost!

Check local motor-supply houses. I recall an article on someone's 160m
vertical where they obtained new no. 18 or so enameled wire from such a
source for around 2-cents a foot. Maybe Grainger has a store in your
area.
Or maybe electric-supply house such as United Electric -- for no. 14 or
no.
12 THHN insulated wire. Large quantity should bring the price down.

I get mine from a local scrap yard, usually works out to a penny or two
a
foot, but I pay by the pound. It is usually spooled insulated no. 12 or
14
insulated. 

73/Jon AA1K

>From Gary, KD9SV (also suggested by K9UWA):

I stopped by Pembertons today...he says .01/ft or $600 for 60,000ft of
white
insulated stranded (approx 20ga wire).  Some spools have 5000ft or so. 
It
would pretty well fill up my pickup truck...gary

Note...  Pemberton's surplus located in Ft Wayne, IN - believe they may
be www?

This www was suggested by Bob, N6WG -  Interesting selection of really
good wire (teflon jackets!)

George
Check out this web site
http://www.worldwidewire.com/
73, Bob N6WG

And from Jerry (callsign??):

George,

I use magnet wire with double build insulation.  
You can buy this at the current price of copper generally per pound.

73,    Jerry                                     krr2ak@juno.com

And finally an interesting suggestion from old friend Herb ex KV4FZ:

George,

Some radio stations in puerto Rico on a budget bury barbed wire which is
available for next to nothing compared to copper.  It is a mess to work
with but with a ditch witch and a vibrating plow blade (hollow with a
hole in the bottom to feed out the wire) attachment they lay it down
with minimal handling and quickly.  It may not last as long in the
ground and it may be more difficult to attach at the ground ring but it
does work.    Also it may have about half the lasting time as copper
depending upon the soil composition.

It seems that in PR fisherman have been pulling up ground systems and
selling the copper for scrap by the pound or using it to make fish traps
with a wire and wood mesh.

Good luck and nice to hear from you again.


Herb Schoenbohm (ex-KV4FZ)

Friends - there you have the lot.  Some really interesting ideas and
sources!

Also from my own "black book" of good radio surplus sources - Try
Gateway Electronics in St Louis (they're also www but don't have the
address handy).

73  George  W8UVZ