Topband: cheap radial wire?

[n0tt1 at juno.com]

That's right...it's insulated and is used for "invisible" dog fencing. 
I've used it
and it's just fine for radials.  It's tinned copper, at least mine was
and
it came in 500ft spools.

I've also used the military "surplus" WD1-A wire.  It has steel strands
and
tinned copper strands in a tough-as-nails insulation.  It's spooled up as
a
parallel pair but is easy to separate like AC "zip cord".  The only thing
one has to look
out for is to protect the wire at the "connection end" from
rust/corrosion.  I do
that by using tinned copper eye terminals, slipping on a ~1-1/2" length
of 1/4" glue-lined heat shrink tubing onto a bundle of 4-6 wires that
have ~1/2" 
of the insulation removed.  Twist wires together, slip into the terminal
and crimp, then solder to seal off the "barrel" next to the ring.  Next,
slip on the heat-shrink tubing, squirt in a small mount of silicone
ignition
grease (buy at a auto store) in the radial end of the tubing, then heat
shrink
it on the terminal, allowing the terminal end of the tubing to shrink
around
the barrel of the terminal so that the tubing won't have a tendancy to
slide off.  Some of the silicone grease will squirt out, indicating that
it
has likely worked its way around the wires.  

All of that sounds a bit fussy and time consuming, but if it's done in a
kind of assembly line fashion it doesn't take long at all.  I connected
more than 1260 radials on my 7-mhz 9-circle array doing that.

BTW, it is NOT necessary to seal the "distant end" of the WD1-A.  I've
done
tests on that and water doesn't penetrate more than ~1/16" under the
insulation.
There appears to be a kind of dried sealant around the wires.

73,
Charlie, N0TT

On Tue, 9 Nov 2021 10:01:30 -0700 W0MU Mike Fatchett <w0mu at w0mu.com>
writes:
> I believe this wire is insulated.  It is for things like an 
> invisible 
> fence.  I am not sure what it is made of.
> 
> W0MU
> 
> On 11/9/2021 9:21 AM, Rob Atkinson wrote:
> >> Dog electronic fence wire via ebay.
> > Bad idea, except maybe for field day or some other temporary setup 
> due
> > to rust.  Also, long thin runs of steel may not return RF well.
> >
> > For permanence it's a lot better to invest in 3000 feet copper 
> that
> > can provide sixty 50 foot radials.  That will at least get you in 
> fair
> > shape with an inverted L.  But, I get that copper price is out of
> > sight now so if you don't mind  wasted effort, experimentation 
> with
> > cheaper alternatives might be worth it.  Just be prepared to have 
> them
> > rust away or vanish in the case of aluminum.  It might be 
> advisable to
> > find out about your soil acidity before doing anything.
> >
> > Rob
> > K5UJ
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