I've been near your neighborhood (Huntsville) and I remember lots of trees for antenna supports, Mike. Most of my daypacking and even car camping is in the desert where a crappie pole is the highest thing around unless I can find a large boulder to secure to. Even #22 teflon and RG-316 or -174 causes the top to droop like there's a small mouth bass on the hook. Weight aloft is an important consideration in some cases. Sometimes I use a longer feedline so that I can take the shortest route to the ground, then along the ground to the rig instead of the shortest route to the rig. This often reduces the weight aloft, reducng the load on the crappie pole.
Also, small teflon is not fragile at all if you take the strain on the covering and not the wire itself. I'm nervous with #26, but I have not had a failure with #22. It is remarkably strong and stretch-free stuff. Colorful too! I use yellow or red on ground radials to stand out where it is a trip hazard, and white or blue aloft to blend in for aesthetics. The other reason I like small teflon is that I just bunch it up instead of winding it, then roll a velcro strap around the wad. It doesn't tangle. It just springs apart when I unwrap the velcro. I treat radials the same way when the only thing I can put up is an end fed wire fastened to an uphill boulder. If you coil wire, rope or any other cordage, you have to uncoil it or you have a potential mess. I might add that these boulders are often the size of a house. My K1 ATU seems to take anything remotely resembling an antenna in stride. Eric KE6US www.ke6us.com -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mike Morrow Sent: Saturday, July 23, 2005 11:00 AM To: elecraft reflector Subject: Re: [Elecraft] KX1 Antenna Wire - Portable antenna wire comment There's a natural tendency to want super small antenna components to go with our similarly compact QRP rigs. IMHO, that is a grand mistake. I've *never* come across even one portable-use situation where the use of stuff like RG-174 coax or 26 AWG wire was appropriate compared, say, to RG-58 and Flexweave. _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [email protected] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
