[TowerTalk] Who makes Flexweave wire

[Jerry Kincade]

In the for what it's worth department, I ran in to problems with #13
Flexweave when using it as replacement wire on a 265' Carolina Windom at
80', which is basically an upside-down top fed vertical with a couple of
long radials. It won't take the tension that most antenna wires will take
under adverse conditions (like sawing back and forth on a pulley sheave when
both ends are attached to treetops). It appears most of it's tension
strength is in it's jacket, which is fine until you run the jacket through a
support and crank down on the ends with any serious tension. If there's any
back and forth movement from wind in the treetops, the plastic jacket then
"cold flows"and gets thinner and thinner at the support point, finally
leaving the poor skinny little strands on their own, whereupon they break.
The jacket, for several inches each side of the break, was tapered and
thinned down to the point that it looked like black paint where the break
occurred. BTW, I'm using Harkin sailboat pulleys, so a balky pulley sheave
is not the problem. I finally reduced the tension and installed a larger
diameter pulley on the support, which so far has cured the problem. But I
still can't crank down on it like a guitar string like I'd really like to
do, so there's more droop in the wire than I like. For that, I'd have to go
to big Copperweld, I guess, but I don't think Copperweld would stand up to
the pulley/flexing and would have to be fixed in place at the upper support.
This antenna works as advertised from 160 through 10, though, and has turned
out to be worth the trouble to put up (and keep up) if you can get it high
enough. Yes, I could use the old pulley/weight thing at each end, but that
would simply transfer the cold flow problem to both ends instead of in the
middle. :-)

73, Jerry W5KP
----- Original Message -----
From: "George Shaw" <george.shaw@ukf.net>
To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2001 12:59 AM
Subject: RE: [TowerTalk] Who makes Flexweave wire


>
> Sort of answering my own question but these guys claim to own the patent
and
> make the cable?
>
> http://www.chelcom.com/html/flex-weave.html
>
> Thanks to all who answered.
>
> --
> George Shaw
>
> eMail:                          george.shaw@btinternet.com
> eMail:                          george.shaw@ukf.net
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>
>
>
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List Sponsored by AN Wireless:  AN Wireless handles Rohn tower systems,
Trylon Titan towers, coax, hardline and more. Also check out our self
supporting towers up to 100 feet for under $1500!!  http://www.anwireless.com

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