[TowerTalk] [Bulk] Re: Has anyone every put up a V-beam?

[Grant Saviers]

I've had (surprisingly) good luck with aluminum fencing wire for top 
band elevated radials - 8 x 125' in a forest with a lot of falling 
debris.  I used 12.5 ga, and its been up 3 years.  9ga is also 
available.  Yesterday, I lowered several radials for an arborist to 
remove a tree and all were as tight as originally installed.  I had a 
roll of 10ga Al coated hard steel wire I thought would be necessary, but 
it was nearly impossible to work with.

Perhaps there is a big difference in suppliers, as alloy and temper make 
a huge difference.  I agree that aluminum will stretch more than good 
USA made high tensile barb wire, but can be made to about equal in yield 
point to softer steel wire and maybe some of the Chinese barb wire.

re "Copperweld" there are pretty useless Cu flash plated copper colored 
steel wires, and then real Copperweld such as available from DavisRF.   
http://copperweld.com/en/products/metals/ccs.html

Then there is the question: why would you care if a multi wavelength "V" 
element stretched a bit, if you had a means to adjust the tension?

Grant KZ1W

On 9/17/2015 8:02 AM, dw wrote:
> Thanks Ken,
> I didn't realize the aluminum stuff would stretch.
> They have it at lowes for electric fence wire, so I was assuming the
> stretching would be pretty much identical to steel wire.
> I can use steel wire and braze connectors onto it.
> Maybe that would be a safer bet that aluminum.
> Do they make a copper coated electric fence wire?
> I do have copperweld type wire for building wire antennas, but wasn't
> sure I would use it for this project.
> Don't think I have enough to do both sides.
> So I thought electric fence wire would be quick and easy.
> Duane
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 17, 2015, at 04:50 AM, Ken wrote:
>> Patrick,
>>
>> Okay.  You just said aluminum fence wire. I've used that for fencing and
>> it stretches pretty bad.  Steel core, aluminum coated would be different
>> although myself I would go with copper coated (copperweld type).
>>
>> 73,
>> Ken WA8JXM
>>
>> On 9/17/15 7:15 AM, Patrick Greenlee wrote:
>>> Aluminum coated steel wire is commonly used for electric fences.
>>> Although proper practice is to install it with low tension (as per
>>> vendor and MFG) that is not because of any failing in the wire's
>>> strength or resilience. It can take significant tension and last a
>>> good long time.  One issue is the skin effect.  Your lowest frequency
>>> of interest will penetrate into the wire to the greatest depth. You
>>> will get better performance if your skin depth does not exceed the
>>> thickness of the aluminum outer layer.  I cant quote the formula for
>>> skin depth from memory but it is readily available.
>>>
>>> There has been a lot of this aluminum coated steel wire used for
>>> antennas with good success.
>>>
>>> Patrick        NJ5G
>>>
>>> On 9/17/2015 5:46 AM, Ken wrote:
>>>> Aluminum fence wire stretches easily under load.   It needs to be
>>>> supported every ten feet or so, not ideal for long wire antennas.  I
>>>> won't even use it for electric fences ;-)
>>>>
>>>> Ken WA8JXM
>>>>
>>>> On 9/15/15 3:45 PM, dw wrote:
>>>>> I think I'll pick up some aluminum fence wire at Lowes tonight on the
>>>>> way home from work.
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