[TowerTalk] Wire Rope

[Jim Brown]

On 9/9/2020 11:00 AM, Richard (Rick) Karlquist wrote:
> Stainless steel is exceptionally lossy at RF.  There are
> no specs on just how bad the loss is, so you take your
> chances if you use it.  Copperweld would be a much
> better "unbreakable" solution.  That's what its made

I've had terrible experience with stranded copperweld. For at least ten 
years, my "go to" strong antenna wire is #8 bare copper from the big box 
store stretched about 20-25% to make it approximate hard drawn. My 
lowest wires are 30M dipoles at 100 ft, the highest are 80/40 at 130 ft, 
all fed with RG11, 100# weights and pulleys on one end of each. Never 
had one break. This is in 200 ft redwoods that sway a lot in the wind, 
so lots of stress, plus weight of about 170 ft of RG11.

#10 stranded THHN is pretty strong, but it stretches, so must be 
shortened every few years, and it has broken at least once. The fancy 
stranded wire that Davis RF sells is REALLY POOR for strength. I love 
Davis RF, buy from them a lot, but both I and friends have had antennas 
built with it end up on the ground within a year or two.

73, Jim K9YC