[TowerTalk] Splicing antenna wires

[Rus Healy]

Reading W2UP's post made me realize that a lot of people probably struggle with splicing busted antenna wires, or tacking some extra length onto the end of a dipole. It doesn't have to be painful. Go to the electrical department at Home Depot (or Osh, or Chase-Pitkin, or whatever) and get a bunch of split-bolt clamps. These little copper-and-brass marvels are meant for splicing together multiple ground wires inside electrical junction boxes. They make very good mechanical connections and come in a bunch of sizes. I probably have a dozen of them in the air outdoors. Since the materials are compatible with antenna wire, there's no corrosion to worry about, and they require just a box-end wrench and socket wrench to assemble. The two smallest sizes you'll find are the best ones for antenna use. They install in such a way that the splice area doesn't bend the wires, minimizing stress on the joint. Works great, even for wires under great stress. You can install them on existing wires without breaking the wire, also, since the split bolt and nut come apart. I also use them to attach multiple radials to a single wire at vertical antenna feed points.

I had an 80-meter dipole that Trey and I put up during his visit last April (when it was about 35 degrees outside), about 60 feet up in the trees. When the central suport rope failed, the dipole was pulled apart by trees swaying in opposite directions in a big wind storm. (We get a lot of that here in the Rochester area.) The #14 stranded, insulated wire was spliced a few feet from the feed point with a split-bolt connector, but the failure occurred where the wire itself stretched and finally broke about 15 feet farther out from the feed point. That made a believer out of me.

--73, Rus, NJ2L

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