[Elecraft] Antenna Wire

[Jim Brown]

On Tue, 7 Sep 2004 16:36:07 -0400, Phil LaMarche wrote:

>Just lost all my wire antenna's in the hurricane just passed.  The wire
>broke in the wind.  What should I purchase to replace what is lost?

Sorry to hear of your bad luck. 

If you want to stick with dipoles, go to Home Depot and buy the biggest 
copper wire that you think you can support. I like #8 or #10 for long runs 
that are fed by RG8 or RG11, or #12 for shorter runs and runs that don't 
need to support as much weight. 

I would also look at WHAT elements failed. Was it the wire, the 
attachment points, the insulators?  Whatever those weak points were, do 
them "beefier" than what you did before. 

IMO, anything #14 or larger is a fraction of a dB from #8, and many of us 
have made lots of QSO's with wires as small as #18 to #22 (although you 
may see a dB or two of loss for the small wire size). 

If you're a DX chaser, a vertical with a decent ground system is a fine 
alternative. So is a good long wire with a decent counterpoise. Many folks 
swear by something called an inverted L, or even tying both sides of a 
feedline together and feeding it as a long wire with the dipole providing 
top loading. The latter configuration works VERY well for me on 80 and 
160.  To make this work, there can't be a balun at the antenna, because 
this would disconnect the top section from the vertical section. So if and 
when you use this dipole as a dipole, you need a balun between the tuner 
and the feedline. 


Jim Brown  K9YC