Topband: antenna wire

[Shoppa, Tim]

I doubt the wire broke at corner because RF is too high. Mechanical dressing at any corner is far more relevant.

The stranded Polystealth is good stuff, will survive bends without good mechanical stress relief much better than solid copper, but
it too will break at a corner after enough flexing if not dressed appropriately.

Also note that polystealth is copper clad steel, with a rather thin coat of copper, and will show some rust of the steel core wherever the copper is nicked. Nothing against polystealth I've had 130 feet of it over my house for many years now. It is so much easier to deal with than solid copperweld. I would still be entwined in a snake of wire if I had tried to put up 130 feet of similar gauge solid copperweld over my house.

I advocate the way to build a long lasting corner, involves two separate antenna wires dressed appropriately (large radius loop through insulator and no tight corners) through the insulator, with the two wires connected by a flexible electrical jumper that has no mechanical stress applied.

I learned the above dealing with both solid copperweld and solid copper ladder line at corners. At any corner or support where the wind would whip the ladder line, the wire was guaranteed to break. But stress relieve the corners with large radius loops, good mechanical dressing and a flexible electrical jumper that has no stress on it, and it'll last forever.

Tim N3QE

-----Original Message-----
From: Topband [mailto:topband-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Jorge Diez - CX6VM
Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2012 8:58 AM
To: topband at contesting.com
Subject: Topband: antenna wire

Hello

 

Wich antenna wire do you use for large delta loops for 160 and 80 mts, or other wire antennas?

 

I did something with Polys-13 from DavisRF, but not sure if I need a thicker wire to run high power

 

My 80 mts delta loop wire is very dark over 5 years, and was broken at one of the corner where I have insulator and RF is to high

 

73,

Jorge

CX6VM/CW5W

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