Agreed Jim,
I bought a 6000' roll of #18 insulated from DelCity a while back - got it
on sale for $183 including shipping .... it was in a self storage with lots
of other things which ended up getting broken in to and stolen. Also they
took the electronics for a Hi-Z 4 sq and all the hardware for a M2 10M7DX
that I had separated in to a bucket. Now DelCity wants $350 for the same
wire. I can get #14 THHN insulated from HD for $26/500'. So that's what
I'll go with.
I've decided to stick with my original plan of doing 40 125' radials (the
original original when I had the 6000' roll was 50 of these ... oh well -
I'm sure no difference).
Gary
K9RX
-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Brown
Sent: Thursday, December 1, 2016 2:24 PM
To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] radials
On Thu,12/1/2016 11:04 AM, w5jmw@towerfarm.net wrote:
As long as we are on this subject.What abt wire diameter of the radials.Is
there a desired size.Does say #22 work as well as #12. current tarvels on
the outside.
In general, using wire larger than #18 is for mechanical strength rather
than resistance, and even conductors as small as the #24-26 used in CAT5
cable have been successfully used in large on-ground radial systems
where there are a large number of radials. If you're installing only a
few radials, I would consider #18 a minimum size if you plan to run high
power simply to avoid overheating the conductor near the feedpoint
(where current is usually a maximum).
I use #14 THHN (ordinary house wire) because I can easily buy 500 ft
spools at good prices from my local big box store. I would use #18 if I
could buy it as easily and cheaply. But there is considerable
convenience in being able to put 4 spools on a rod, and measure off 4
radials at a time. :)
73, Jim K9YC
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