Topband: Beverage wire question

[Shoppa, Tim]

The solid copper clad steel stuff will always remember its original coiled-up-ness. Stranded stuff is not so bad for memory.

I don't have a lot of antenna wire on/near the ground, but the short lengths I do have on/near the ground constantly have deer walking through them. I use very skinny 22 gauge stranded, keep them tensioned with pulleys and small amount of counterweight tension (just a few pounds of sand) and they have never broken yet.

The copper clad steel stuff, you have to make sure it does not flex at a fixed point. Copper clad steel will break for sure wherever it is forced to flex, it is worse than soft copper (which will also eventually break at a forced flexure point, but not as quick as copper clad steel). You can do OK with a loop at the ends that can swivel in an insulator hole or a screw eye.

Take whatever wire you ever contemplate being flexed at a fixed swivel point and just wiggle it by hand. You will decide instead to form a loop at any swivel point. And you will also decide that copper clad steel is far more "brittle" than soft copper.

Copper clad steel has its advantages. Flexing at fixed points without a loop through an eyehole, is its weak point, not its strength.

You will note that where others say "it broke so I need stiffer wire at higher tension",  I have chosen to go the other way and use skinnier flexier wire at low tension. I know I am bucking the trend.

Tim N3QE

-----Original Message-----
From: Topband [mailto:topband-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Jim Garland
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2014 11:42 AM
To: Topband at contesting.com
Subject: Topband: Beverage wire question

I've been using 450 ohm ladder line for my two bi-directional 720 ft beverages. These are supported on 4x4 posts, spaced 60 ft apart. I'm in a windy area, and the ladder line requires constant maintenance. I want to replace it with parallel wires, which run through ceramic feedthrough insulators screwed onto each post. The wires will be anchored only at their ends and under considerable tension. I'm thinking of using solid 14 awg or
12 awg copper clad steel wire (Wireman 502 or 503).  I know there are less expensive choices, but at this point I'm so tired of working on the beverages, that the durability and reliability is more important to me than the expense.  I want to make sure that The Wirmean coils the wire on a spool, so that it can be easily unwound, and also that it's not too stiff to handle. Obviously, I don't want wire that's going to go "sproing" and start tangling itself when I try to thread a 720 ft length through the insulators.
I'd appreciate any suggestions or comments from people who have used this stuff. Is 14awg adequate, or do I need to go with the heavier gauge wire?

Tnx,

Jim W8ZR

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