At 08:56 PM 1/30/98 -0500, you wrote:
>I ran across what looks like a great source of very good wire for erecting
>Beverage antennas. With the days of "wired" communication all but done in
>the military, large spools of telephone wire are beginning to show up on the
>surplus market. The stuff I found originally came on a roll of about a
>mile, two conductor twisted (yes Herman-you must untwist it!).
>
>Now, here is the best part. This stuff is LIGHT, about 18 ga, coated with a
>VERY durable black insulating material, and the wire solders beautifully.
>It is STRONG (a double strand (4 wires) 12 feet long pulled my mini van out
>of deep snow). Being insulated helps eliminate static buildup from snow.
>Even better: the coating appears NOT TO ALLOW MUCH ICE TO BUILD UP ON
I purchased some similar surplus telephone wire at the Delaware hamfest a
couple of years ago, though mine is a mix of olive drab and dark brown in
color, and had many splices in it (used!), and only cost $8 for a 2-ft
diameter spool. For my first couple of Beverages with it I did try
separating the two wires (for economy's sake) but found this more trouble
than it was worth; the wire would too easily get tangled. So I just decided
to use it as a pair, shorting each end.
As I began putting up my new Beverage farm through the thick woods at my new
QTH recently, it dawned on me that the double wires had an extra advantage
than the normal single wire. If a Beverage was having problems, I could use
an ohmmeter at either end to determine if the wire had been broken (falling
tree limb, ice, etc.). If it measured a dead short, then the wire was OK and
I'd look elsewhere for the problem. If it measured open across the the two
wires, then I would know it was broken somewhere and start wading through
the brush to find and fix the problem.
73/Jon AA1K
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