Topband: Ladder line vs coax loss epiphany

[Shoppa, Tim]

I use strips of 1/16" polycarbonate, about 5/16" wide by 4" long, with 1/16" holes punched near the ends and a slit cut for wire insertion, as spacers for my #14 solid wires. Has held up to the weather and UV just fine over past 5 years.

I made some initial plastic spacers using drill press and saw but for me, the real timesaving breakthrough in making the spacers, was figuring out that snips cut the polycarbonate sheet just fine, and the Roper Whitney #5 does the holes like magic. I love that thing.

http://www.roperwhitney.com/store/shop/no-5-jr-hand-punch/

Tim N3QE

-----Original Message-----
From: Topband [mailto:topband-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Eric NO3M
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2014 3:42 PM
To: topband at contesting.com
Subject: Re: Topband: Ladder line vs coax loss epiphany

OWL using #14 THHN and 1/2 in. irrigation "drip" tube.  If drilled with the right sized hole, the spacers pinch the wire enough to stay in place w/o any additional hardware:

http://no3m.net/index.php?page=open-wire-transmission-line

73 Eric NO3M

On 04/30/2014 11:16 AM, Rik van Riel wrote:
> On 04/30/2014 11:08 AM, Shoppa, Tim wrote:
>> I briefly used the "window line" you all are discussing, before I 
>> built my own parallel line from scratch.
>
> It is surprisingly easy to make one's own ladder line, on a budget, 
> from materials that are locally available.
>
> I have made ladder line from 12ga THHN wire, 1/4 tubing, UV resistant 
> zip ties, and super glue.
>
> First, I cut the 1/4 inch tubing in many pieces of equal length, 
> representing the distance between the wires.
>
> Then, I string up two lines of copper wire near each other, at a 
> convenient to work with height. This can be done between two trees, 
> between a tree and the deck, etc...
>
> To assemble the ladder line, I run a zip tie through the tubing, 
> around one wire, back through the tubing, around the second wire, and 
> then I ratchet it close.
>
> I put spacers on about every foot and a half. Afterwards, I run by and 
> snip off the zip tie ends, followed by another run to put a drop of 
> superglue where each zip tie touches the wire.
>
> Ladder line like this has been up both at my house, and at a friend's 
> place, for a few years now.
>
> It is a lot easier to make it this way, than to run hundreds of feet 
> of copper wire through ready-bought spreaders.
>
> I did take pictures at one point. If someone wants the illustrated 
> version of the above description, I'll type up a blog post with 
> pictures.
>
> If someone has ideas on how to do it better, I am all ears :) 
> _________________

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