[TowerTalk] Radial Wire

[Hal Kennedy]

I'm with Jim on going smaller rather than larger.  My radials are all
either #22 tinned copper, which I bought a huge roll of from The Wireman
before copper prices went up, or CAT5 wire.  I haven't checked lately,
but 1,000 of CAT5 at Home Depot has been pretty reasonable - and that's
8,000 feet of wire.  CAT5 is very easy to strip apart into four twisted
pairs.  Untwisting the twisted pairs is a real pain, so I don't, I just
hook them in parallel and leave them twisted.  That nets 4,000 feet of
wire from a 1,000 foot box.  

 

I mentioned #22 here once before and got push-back regarding it being
too frail to drive on and susceptible to lightening damage.  Neither has
been a problem for me.  YMMV.  All the radials at the K4JA super-station
were #22 BTW and got driven on routinely by Paul's Jeep and lawn tractor
without any problems.  A twisted pair from a CAT5 bundle, which includes
leaving the insulation on - has been robust enough for my applications.


 

73,

N4GG