[TowerTalk] XHHW wire

[Bob Shohet, KQ2M]

I have used THHN #12 and #14 solid for antenna and radial wire for ~20 years – bought at Home Depot and Lowes.  The clear protective coating flakes off and hangs from the wire in spots, but the black jacket has never come off the wire at this qth.  I can’t be 100% certain but I am pretty sure that the antenna performance has not changed meaningfully over time; although with the wx that we routinely get at my qth, no wire antenna survives here for more than about 5 years without needing repair or replacement.

73

Bob, KQ2M


From: Jim Brown 
Sent: Friday, February 21, 2020 2:41 PM
To: towertalk at contesting.com 
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] XHHW wire

On 2/21/2020 5:18 AM, john at kk9a.com wrote:
> Is the PVC insulation coming off?  I have never seen this occur, even in 
> Aruba.  Typically just the nylon coating over the PVC that reduces 
> friction and makes it more chemical resistant starts peeling off. 

John. I've had a lot of THHN in the air for ten years or more, and your 
experience is the same as mine. In response to erroneous comments made 
by another ham that antenna performance was degraded by this, N6LF 
published  the results of some serious lab work proving that this was 
not true.
  You
> can buy bare wire in any size, I use it for ground radials.  

I use THHN #14 for radials, both on the ground and elevated.

>I believe 
> that K9YC uses heavy AWG bare copper and pre-stretches it for antenna wire.

Yes.

73, Jim K9YC