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Re: [TowerTalk] Wire

To: Steve K8LX <lists@oakcom.org>, "towertalk@contesting.com" <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Wire
From: Wayne Kline <w3ea@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2021 00:14:23 +0000
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
I have used excusavily  #12 Ga  THHN  or THWN-2  for  many  years ( was a 
industrial Electrian for a  time. And or Greenlee wire Tree  when the 100 ft. 
roll got low. We changed them out, ( can’t have a splice inside a  conduit)  So 
many many 200 300ft rolls came home with me.   In my 40 pluss years I have 
never had a wire failure  I hade rope failure from wear in a pully   ( Out 
local Radio Club back in the late  80’s got a lead on 10,000 foot  Military 
surplus main parrashoot cord  .125 OD olive drab, ) the stuff is indistrucrable 
  and highlly prized. ( read use over and over again ) during a ice storm in 
1998 I lost 11 yagi antennas     the wire antennas the wire was intact the 
ropes were intact but the pullies were pulled from the trees and the one’s on 
the tower were  yanked off)

Long rant  that but THHN THWN-2 is  IMO the go to wire ( the only issue is when 
frist put up after a few years and exposure to UV the velar plastic coating 
sheeds  and look UGLY hanging off in lengths )
Wayne ,W3EA
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From: Steve K8LX<mailto:lists@oakcom.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2021 6:39 PM
To: towertalk@contesting.com<mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Wire

I've switched over to #12 THHN, and love it so far. I have a high full
wave 80M diamond quad loop made from it with fairly high tension on the
top half and have not noticed any lowering of resonant frequency so far.

Solid wire is nice cuz it's easy to clean if you need to re-solder anything.

-Steve K8LX

On 3/11/2021 6:29 PM, Jim Brown wrote:
> On 3/11/2021 3:15 PM, Dave Sublette wrote:
>> So I am considering just cutting new dipoles fromTHHN, probably #14.
>
> Hi Dave,
>
> Other than that failed experiment with FlexWeave when I got back on the
> air in 2003, I've never used anything but THHN for wire antennas. For
> low-stress applications (not very high, no tall trees involved), Our
> dipoles for FD, that get strung between ad hoc skyhooks or to ropes
> launched into low trees are all #14 THHN solid. I've been happy with
> #14; for my high dipoles suspended between very tall redwoods and fed
> with 150 ft or more of RG11, I've settled on #8 bare copper, stretched
> so that it approximates "hard drawn" and about #9. I've done this
> because even #10 stranded or solid stretches under tension, so I had to
> lower the dipoles every few years to snip a few feed off the ends.
>
> #14 solid should be just fine for your application. Just be prepared to
> tweak length every few years. :)
>
> 73, Jim K9YC
>
>
>
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