[Elecraft] DIY Hard-drawn copper wire

[Vic Rosenthal 4X6GP/K2VCO]

I have actually done this -- but I didn't drive until it broke. I just 
gave it a little stretch. And it wasn't no. 8 wire!
Worked a treat, as our UK cousins say.

73,
Vic, 4X6GP/K2VCO
Rehovot, Israel
http://www.qsl.net/k2vco/

On 11 Feb 2016 16:34, Dauer, Edward wrote:
> In a recent post Jim, K9YC, suggested making hard-drawn copper wire
> for antennas by attaching a few hundred feet of bare copper wire to a
> tree or telephone pole at one end and to a bumper hitch at the other,
> then driving away very slowly until it snaps.  That sounded like a
> very attractive idea - much in the ham tradition.  I wondered,
> though, whether it could be done using a car without a bumper hitch.
> The minimum breaking strength of number 8 hard-drawn copper wire
> (though it might be closer to number 10 after being stretched) is
> between 644 and 826 pounds, according to a chart I found on the
> Internet.  Rather than test it empirically with my 16-year-old SUV
> (no bumper hitch), I wondered what 700 or 800 pounds of shear force
> would do to an automobile frame, assuming attachment to a suitable
> bolt somewhere.  Or would the tree fall over first?
>
> Ted, KN1CBR