[Elecraft] OT: Ladder Line Spacers

[David Gilbert]

I was wondering the same thing.  I used nylon twine to hold up my roof 
mounted 40m vertical when I lived in Phoenix and the stuff lasted for 
well over ten years without any noticeable degradation in strength even 
under that brutal sunlight, but every single molded nylon part of any 
kind that I ever used for anything outdoors would become brittle and 
crack in roughly a year.  Unless the item description specifically 
stated that it was UV stabilized I personally wouldn't trust it.  The 
current description only says that they are "surplus" parts that KF4TAP 
discovered somewhere and thought they might be usable as spreaders .... 
http://sites.google.com/site/kshamradioparts/home/keith-s-blog/newitem

73,
Dave   AB7E



On 5/13/2010 10:07 AM, Wes Stewart wrote:
> How did we get from solid spacers to rope?
>
> http://www.sdplastics.com/ultravioletresistance.html
>
> --- On Thu, 5/13/10, Tom W8JI<w8ji at w8ji.com>  wrote:
>
> From: Tom W8JI<w8ji at w8ji.com>
> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] OT: Ladder Line Spacers
> To: "Wes Stewart"<n7ws at yahoo.com>, elecraft at mailman.qth.net, "Ken Kopp"<k0pp at rfwave.net>
> Date: Thursday, May 13, 2010, 3:03 AM
>
> The dissipation factor of Nylon is about two orders of magnitude greater than polyethylene and the UV resistance is horrible.
>
> Wes N7Ws>>
>
> None of that may matter because the electric field strength in the insulator is probably low and almost all nylon has UV inhibitors now.
>
> The rope I use for antennas is nylon and it lasts a very long time in the Georgia sun.
>
> You have to look at the material characteristics of the particular nylon material for UV life, and the end application for dissipation factor problems. Even 100 times nothing might still be considered nothing.
>
> 73 Tom
>
>
>