Topband: use of WD-1 Military field phone wire for bog and/or beverage (terry burge)

[Larry]

Terry:

I tried a reversible BOG a couple years ago, and found that there was a
reason nobody talked about it;
the attenuation of the ground made the signal coming back along the two
wires MUCH weaker.  I was using 16 ga copper landscape wire; I tried
several different impedance ratios but never could get a decent signal
on the reverse direction, and was scratching my head until I finally
figured out it was ground attenuation.
Your ground may vary, but I run individual BOGs for each direction.

Opinions vary on the use of WD1 for Beverage Above Ground, but for BOGs,
where the attenuation from ground is already significant, I'd stick with
copper if I could.  WD-1A is 3/7 steel, is between 19 and 20 gage each
side and costs around 5 to 8 cents a foot on eBay.  14 gage THHN runs
around 8-9 cents a foot at the local supply house, and you can make 2
decent BOGs from one 500' spool.  Plus you don't have to check each foot
of the new wire for insulation cracks and shorts, an issue I have
encountered with WD1-a wire, most of which has been used before being
surplused.

If I were going to use WD-1a for BOGs, I'd get a can of liquid tape,
check each foot as I rolled it out and patch any bad spots with the
liquid tape, and tie both ends together to double it up to reduce the
loss in the wire.

Good luck!
Larry W8ANT


"Message: 5
Date: Fri, 23 Nov 2018 11:08:58 -0800 (PST)
From: terry burge <ki7m at comcast.net>
To: topband at contesting.com, terry burge <ki7m at comcast.net>
Subject: Topband: use of WD-1 Military field phone wire for bog and/or
	beverage
Message-ID: <1186206495.167951.1543000139323 at connect.xfinity.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

Hi folks,


I know it's been discussed but I don't recall the specific questions I wish to know. Does the WD-1 need to be separated (2 wire) to work as a beverage or bog beverages. Can it just be used as is for both reverseable or just one direction. Also, don't know if there would be any advantage or disadvantage to having a dual wire beverage? The bog's won't be real long due to my property limitations but I'd like to have something to see if I can improve my S to N on 160. Especially for 160CQWWPHN contest which I always enjoy operating in. Worked ZL2OK Dave last year! Still a great moment for me."