[TowerTalk] Field telephone wire for radials

[tony.kaz at verizon.net]

Paul, I agree with what you are saying about the corrosion. I use WD1A with
both wires tied together. Cheap enough to not spend the time pulling apart
the wires.  One of the BOGS sounded low on signal level. Checked the wire.
It was corroded. I was lucky. Only had to cutoff about 2" to get to shiny
wire. Soldered on a spade lug and sealed with liquid tape. Will see how it
holds up. Signals now back to normal. 
73,
N2TK, Tony


-----Original Message-----
From: TowerTalk <towertalk-bounces at contesting.com> On Behalf Of N1BUG
Sent: Monday, November 2, 2020 9:54 AM
To: towertalk at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Field telephone wire for radials

Yes, after pulling the two wires apart you will have two nice coils of wire
with an attitude! I have used thousands of feet of WD1A for reversible
Beverages, control cables and even feed line for LF/MF receiving antennas. I
had a one mile spool that looked and supposedly was new old stock. It is/was
not flat parallel conductors, but actually twisted pair with a low twist
rate. That can make separating the two wires interesting if you are doing a
long piece.

The other caution I would add is seal the ends! If water gets into that
stuff it can be a disaster. The steel strands rust and then the rust damages
the tinned copper strands. Before long you have a high resistance point in
the wire where all of the strands are broken. I spent way too many hours
troubleshooting stuff before finally figuring that one out. I'm not sure how
far water will propagate inside the insulation but I would definitely want
to seal the end where a radial is connected at the base of the vertical. I
would probably seal both ends for peace of mind.

73,
Paul


On 11/2/2020 9:08 AM, Roger Parsons via TowerTalk wrote:
> Just one point about WD1/WD1A cable. I find it great for radials, but 
> splitting it can be harder than it seems. It lays beautifully flat as 
> a pair, but each individual wire seems to have a tight spiral on it, 
> and it's really hard to use. Of course, I may be doing something 
> wrong, but that's my experience.
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