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Re: [TowerTalk] solid THHN vs jacketed copperweld

To: "towertalk@contesting.com" <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] solid THHN vs jacketed copperweld
From: Richard Smith <n6kt1@sbcglobal.net>
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2022 04:39:43 +0000 (UTC)
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
 I chose #14 Hard Drawn bare copper wire for a couple of 80 Meter wire yagi 
antennas at the station PJ4K in Bonaire. It is too soon to know how well it 
will hold up, as we just installed them this year. I chose hard drawn to 
minimize stretch (which might cause detuning), and bare wire to reduce tuning 
time from the variation of velocity factor related to the insulation. I'm not 
sure if this was the best choice, but it seemed to make sense.
73, Rich, N6KT
    On Monday, September 19, 2022 at 08:30:03 PM PDT, john@kk9a.com 
<john@kk9a.com> wrote:  
 
 I do not like Copperweld, perhaps because it had such a short life at my
station in Aruba.  I like K9YC's prestretched 8AWG suggestion, I believe
copper work hardens fairly easily.  Hard drawn bare copper wire is also
available, has anyone tried this? 

73,
John KK9A


Jim K9YC wrote:

Hi Steve,

Many years ago, our mutual friend David Josephson, WA6NMF, taught me to 
buy bare #8 solid copper at the big box store and stretch it to 
approximate #9 hard drawn copper. Over the years, W6GHJB and I have done 
that 3-4 times. We use it for all of our wires under tension. In 
addition to pretty good strength much nicer handling than copperweld, I 
don't have to lower the dipoles and circumcise them every few years, as 
I did with one that was built with THHN.

We use copper split-bolts for connections.

73, Jim K9YC

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