Hi Guys:
Well for once I get to disagree, :-) with experience to back it up. The
wire is an aluminum alloy(something like 5685 alloy I can't recall the
exact number) and is very strong.
The LB quad uses an 8' boom with spiders attached at each end. The 20m
wire elements are used to bend the fiberglass away from the boom ends to
increase the spacing on the lower bands with 8' spacing for 10m. There is
a lot of force on the wire to keep the fiberglass spreaders in the required
position.
The quad was up at my qth in Raleigh for 4 years with no problems. A few
others had the same antenna in the area using the same wire with good
results also.
The wire comes on a small spool and is difficult to use no doubt about it.
I stuck a screw driver in the ground and slipped the spool over it. The
spool was close to the antenna and I fed the wire onto the insulators on
the spreaders. With the spool on the screw driver I did not have the
kinking problems. The wire was then wrapped around a stainless steel bolt
at the feedpoint (or tuning loop on the reflector) and tightened. I will
admit that you only get to bend the wire once after that it will probably
break.
Tom Rauch wrote:
> > Keep in mind Lightning Bolt is manufactured by somebody who also does
> > welding for a living. That may clue you in why he uses welding wire.
> > I doubt that it has any redeeming electrical or physical properties.
> >
> > 73 de Brian/K3KO
>
> I don't know what kind of welding wire he uses, but hopefully it is
> not the steel wire! Normal welding wire for welding ferrous metals
> will rust and start to disappear in a very short time when used
> outdoors.
>
> If it is for aluminum welding, it probably would be too soft. It would
> break easily, and you'd have a tough time making reliable
> connections. I avoid aluminum electric fence wire for that reason.
>
> I'd use a stranded pure copper wire (not copperweld) if I ever
> wanted to build a quad, and stress relieve it near the spreaders
> with some heatshrink over the wire!
> 73, Tom W8JI
> W8JI@contesting.com
>
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--
73,
Richard Thorne
ARS N5ZC (ex KA2DSY, N2BHP, WB5M)
Remote Control Airplanes: AMA# 657062
http://www.tcac.net/~rthorne/
List Sponsor: ChampionRadio.com - Trylon self-supporting towers,
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http://www.championradio.com
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