[ARC5] RCA AVA-120 antenna questions and some other ones too...

[Michael Hanz]

On 7/11/2020 5:53 AM, Craig via ARC5 wrote:
> Hey all, looking for some help with AVA-120 antenna stuff. I'm doing 
> up a set of drawings for the reel and mounting plate for the AVA-120 
> antenna that was used in the L-birds and have a couple of questions 
> for the group. The biggest question is how did the antenna feed 
> connect to the wire on the reel. The best that I can figure out is 
> that the lead is connected to the flexible conduit from the reel to 
> the mast and the conduit acts as a contact shoe. Anyone know if this 
> is correct, or if not, what is? Several of the guys that need reels 
> are also interested in making their radios function, at least on the 
> receive side.

This document might give you some ideas: 
https://aafradio.org/docs/1936_NRL_Antenna_Reels.pdf  - It also has the 
Navy specs for the stranded wire at the bottom.

Also attached is the RL-41 and RL-42 page for the wire connection they 
used - it was in the fairlead.

> The other help that I am looking for on these is anyone have the spec 
> or an actual quantity of the MI-5912-3 wire used for the antenna? All 
> I know about it, is that it's a woven wire and 125 feet of it weighs 9 
> ounces.

Not sure what wire they used for the AVA,  but as far as I know, the US 
Navy was the Service preferring stranded wire in WWII.

> Last question, does anyone have an W-106 or W-106A antenna wire, or 
> the specification for it? I either need to find some, or at least find 
> the spec for this wire for the radio installation for my Fairchild. I 
> haven't been able to locate any, or the specification in my searches. 
> I found a couple of companies that list that they can obtain it, but I 
> would rather not buy a 5000 foot spool to get the 175 feet or so that 
> I need.

The original W-106A copper clad wire is .039" in diameter, according to 
a B-29 drawing I have here for the liaison antenna, but I just use #18 
Copperweld, which is about .001" larger in diameter.. Though there are 
plenty of vendors, I've gotten the copper clad wire for years here - 
https://thewireman.com/product/antenna-wire-18-awg-copper-clad-steel/

           73,
  - Mike  KC4TOS
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