Topband: Beverage Woes

[Les Kalmus]

I use ladder line from the Wireman and from Davis RF. I think the 
conductors are copper plated solid steel.
I bought 1/4" thick 2" wide strips of acrylic from McMaster Carr and 
made a pair of clamps of 6" long pieces by cutting grooves for the wire 
thickness, two holes for ss bolts and one for a rope.
These clamp the ends tightly and the acrylic is useable outdoors.
The ladder line is supported every 50 -75 feet by a 3-4" piece of pvc 
wide enough to easily pass the ladder line and with a large and small 
hole in it. The small hole is for a screw into a convenient tree and the 
large is to pass the screwhead.
Where there were no trees, mainly a swampy area, I used metal fence 
posts with a piece of pvc over the post with a bolt through limit how 
far down it slides on the post and a T on the top end. The ladder line 
passes through the T.
The supports are at the end only. The ladder line has a twist every 3 or 
4 feet and rides easily through the pvc supports. This has been up for 
at least three years and has survived tree limbs, frost, snow and people 
with no problems to date.

I think I have pictures of the clamps if anyone is interested.

Les W2LK

On 10/23/2013 5:46 PM, Mike Waters wrote:
> Whatever you use for wire, it needs to float at the supports. Anchor it at
> only one end and tension it tightly at the other end.
>
> I use my own ladder line, made from .061" diameter plated steel electric
> fence wire and spacers made from 1/4" dia. plastic coat hangers. Supports
> are 10' high and 100' apart. It's taken a lot of abuse, including large
> tree branches falling on it and a porch roof hurled against it by a small
> tornado. Some supports broke during the flying porch roof incident, but the
> wires never broke either time.
>
> WD-1A military telephone wire works well, if you have the right impedance
> matching transformers.
>
> Having said all this, I know that a lot of Topbanders use that brown
> plastic window line for their Beverage antennas. Which kind lasts?
>
> 73, Mike
> http://www.w0btu.com/Beverage_antennas.html
> _________________
> Topband Reflector
>
>