[OKDXA] Splicing wire in a dipole question

[Robert Redmon]

John,

I have had spliced antennas up for decades without problems. The key is 
to provide strain relief (unless you are working with copperweld) and 
construct/solder the splice properly (see ARRL handbook). It is easy to 
mess up a soldering job when you are trying to join oxidized copper 
wire. Be sure you remove all the oxidation. I tend to use fine sandpaper 
(400 or 600 grit) and work on the wire to be soldered until it is all 
shiny and copper again. After soldering, I always clean the joint with a 
baking soda/water solution and then spray a coat of good enamel on it 
before hoisting it back into the air.

My good buddy Gary (W7FG..sk) always swore he never soldered anything 
outside. He essentially "tied" the wire together (strain relief) and 
then used crimp spices. Drove me nuts, but he never seemed to have any 
trouble.

Bob


On 6/1/2013 4:58 PM, John Geiger (AF5CC) wrote:
> My dipole had an unfortuate encounter with a neighbor's tree branch on Wednesday evening during a storm, and is now going to require some repair or replacing.  One option is to fix it by splicing a few pieces of copper wire together.  This is the cheap option.  However, could this cause problems later on?  I am wondering if the junctions of the wire could corrode and start acting like a diode, throwing out RFI all over the place?
>
> Could this happen, or is splicing copper wire in a dipole usually ok?
>
> 73 John AF5CC
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-- 
Robert Redmon K5SM
AMA 58073