[TowerTalk] house wire as antenna feed line

Mark . n1lo at hotmail.com
Wed Apr 27 08:10:44 EDT 2005


>anyone here ever use #10 house wire (singe insulated strand, the kind
>that goes inside armored cable) as twisted pair?
>
>seems like it would be in the high 90s impedance, and easier for me to
>get than KW  75 ohm twinlead (to feed my delta loop with balanced line)
>
>thanks  mike w7dra

Hello TowerTalkers,

Mike, I have used 18 ga lamp cord to make both antenna and feedline. You 
unzip the portion you need for the antenna and leave the remainder as 
parallel feedline. From what I've read, the insulation on lamp cord starts 
to get lossy once you get above 20 meter band. However, for short sections 
of 30-40 ft, this doesn't seem to be a problem. A balun and tuner at the 
transmitter end pretty much makes the impedance unimportant.

You can buy contractor's spools of #12 solid at Lowe's, lay out two strands 
parallel, clamp them at one end and chuck the free ends in your drill and 
twist 'em up. It would be a neat experiment.

Others more knowledgeable here could probably predict what the 
dielectric/loss properties of the insulation on the #12 solid would be. 
Stranded THHN has an additional clear coating.

However, as already pointed out, 10 ga solid doesn't seem readily available.

--...MARK_N1LO...--




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