[TowerTalk] Joining two perpendicular wires

[Jim Brown]

On 7/12/2021 5:06 PM, Mike Smith VE9AA wrote:
> I am not sure about the split-bolts some are mentioning. I only ever used
> them a lifetime ago when I was an apprentice electrician. Copper/Bronze is
> pretty beefy to be hanging in the air bee-bobbing around, but with no
> experience I couldn't say with certainty.

Split bolts come in a very wide range of sizes. For our wire antennas, 
which for wires under tension are #8 bare copper stretched to approach 
#9 hard drawn, we use split bolts with #8 or #10 as the max size. 
They're not very heavy at all; if you're using smaller wire, you can use 
smaller split bolts. We're using the big wire because they're up about 
125 ft strung between redwoods and fed with RG11. There are pulleys at 
both trees, with one end tied off at ground level and the other on a 
100# bucket of sand.

73, Jim K9YC