[TowerTalk] guage of wire for 500 watt antenna?

[Gary Slagel]

Thanks Paul.... that's the info I needed.  Have used some pretty small wire with 100 watts before but I wasn't sure if I needed something heavier just to avoid some kind of electrical failure with the high power ie 'meltdown!'.  I'm mainly concerned about weight on a fiberglass mast.  The mast should be easy to take down and put up so if anything breaks repairs should be easy.  Sounds like maybe I could even get by with 18 guage and will do some research on what's available.
Thanks everyone for advice.   I wish I was 1/2 wl from the ocean for a vertical but no such luck, hence the doublet.  But, I've used them from Costa Rica and Jamaica with 100W and had pretty good luck.
73, Gary KT0A
 

      From: N1BUG <paul at n1bug.com>
 To: "towertalk at contesting.com" <towertalk at contesting.com> 
 Sent: Sunday, December 3, 2017 3:23 AM
 Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] guage of wire for 500 watt antenna?
   
Physical strength is probably the main factor. I successfully ran 
1500 watts into an inverted V made of a single conductor from of 
WD-1A field wire. I believe it is slightly larger than 20 AWG. It 
has four tinned copper strands and three steel strands for strength, 
along with some *very* tough insulation. I've had no problems with 
this. I used this wire because it is strong and relatively light 
weight. It was an inverted V at the top of a 25 foot fixed aluminum 
mast sticking out of a 75 foot tower. I needed relatively small, 
light wire as big stuff would have broken or bent the mast. In the 
past I have run similar power into inverted V antennas using all 
copper wire of similar or smaller size, but wire breaking in storms 
was a problem.

Paul N1BUG


On 12/02/2017 05:00 PM, Gary Slagel via TowerTalk wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> I'm hoping to get to Belize to work ARRL DX CW contest this year and I'd like to take my Elecraft KPA500/KAT500 and operate 500 watts. I will be at a friends house and not next to the ocean so I'm thinking of getting a doublet up in the air as far as I can on a fiberglass pole, feeding with 450 ohm ribbon and tuning it on 10 thru 40 and maybe 80M.
> The fiberglass pole won't take too much weight so I'd like to go as small as I can on the wire.   Any suggestions or input?
> Thanks, Gary KT0A
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