[TowerTalk] Ernesto ate my windom

[Jim Brown]

On Sat, 2 Sep 2006 13:12:23 -0400, Gedas wrote:

>Hi Jim, I found your comments below interesting.  Do you really 
>see an advantage using solid wire over stranded for a given size? 

Yes. A major disadvantage of stranded wire is that oxidation of each 
individual strand degrades the overall electrical properties of the 
wire over time. Obviously this is reduced by a good jacket, but 
jackets abraid, and now you have oxidation. It's the same reason that 
braid is bad news when exposed to conditions that cause oxidation. I 
also find solid wire generally easier to work with and make strong 
terminations at the ends. 

Re: stretching when trees blow -- an ancient and accepted method of 
dealing with that is with a pulley and a weight on one end rather 
than a solidly tied rope. That said, I've never done that, and have 
never lost an antenna in a tree. But now that all my antennas will be 
wires in very tall trees, I'm going to adopt that practice when I get 
my "permanent" wires up. 

Another point. Copper DOES have a good amount of stretch before it 
breaks if it isn't already hard drawn. This may be why so many of us 
have such good luck with wires in trees. 

In my limited experience, wire antennas come down because something 
breaks at a weak point when stressed. Learning how to avoid these 
weak points, and to minimize the stresses, is the key to making them 
stay up. And every little bit helps -- beefier solid wire with some 
stretch, the pulley/weight, avoiding solder at points that will be 
flexed, solid, smooth tie-offs, etc. 

73,

Jim Brown K9YC