[Elecraft] Antenna wire question for long spans

[Ian Stirling]

On Thursday 17 August 2006 23:38, n0evh wrote:

> Would appreciate comments from those who have had long spans of wire up in the
> air.

  My house is surrounded by trees.
 I have 500 feet of wire threaded over and through
the trees using a catapult (slingshot). The wire at
the far end descends to a spool with another 500 feet
of wire, ready for when the trees are bare so that
I can finish a horizontal loop (if I ever do).
So currently, it is an end-fed unfinished loop, the end
entering the basement from the top of a 50' tree
 to an SG-231 tuner.
  I bought the wire at Home Depot - 12 gauge insulated
copper multistranded.  It has withstood five years of
weather and trees mightily swaying in countless storms.
 It appears to have stretched or slipped over the years
 - the join I made in the middle of the 1000 feet of
wire is now near the ground at the spool whereas it was
up in the trees a couple of years ago.
  In 27 years as a radio amateur, I have used only my
own wire aerials - end-feds, dipoles, inverted Vs, loops,
verticals and whatnots.  I regarded them all as temporary
and experimental, not minding if they broke, fell down
or were dismantled - the inevitable fate of them all.

Ian, G4ICV, AB2GR, K2 #4962
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