I'm fortunate to have a nice radial assembly of aprox 50 130' radials & half of them on a salt marsh with the rest over boggy ground. Unfortunately I have no way to put up a pulley system with relief on one end and the antenna in open air.
I use 6 & 8 strand ribbon "CAT wire" which was used indoors for running computer and phone wire. I got several miles of it at a cheap price on ebay. I used that for my radial wires, soldered at both ends and I also use it for my elements. I have an inv-L for 160, an almost full length vertical for 80, a 40M & 30M vertical all using the same radial bed. I used to have a butternut for 20-10 meters but found I heard and transmitted better using one of the aforementioned wires instead for the higher bands. I use a PVC cannon to shoot a projectile over the tallest tree and raise the antennae that way. The verticals are no issue, they remain up and give no problem. The problem is on 160 where the best I can do is aim for a hole in the tree tops and shoot the projectile through it & over the tallest tree I can get to. I tie down the distant end with the entirety of the wires elevation resting on tree branches. Being on the ocean's edge there is considerable tree movement all the time and yearly the wire frays and breaks close to midway. It came down this week. I'm guessing the plastic layer of the ribbon is not UV proof and that allows the outer insulation to peel off exposing the 24 gauge solid wires to the sun and their insulation to wear & break off. The CAT wire is quite sturdy when first used but it is made of many fragile parts. All that to say; since I have no choice but to run the wire over the tree tops, what would be a better wire? Copperclad would probably be more durable but the contact with the tree branches on exposed wire would be no good. Enamelled copperclad would soon have the enamel worn off & there would be direct metal contact to the branches. I can't find any of the old copperclad two element telephone wiring around here with UV proof & durable insulation as the phone company won't give it or sell it privately when they take it down. I looked at the wire Home Depot has and the stranded wire doesn't seem to have a tough insulation. I'm putting another 8 element wire back up today as there's some pacific DX I need on 160 that's coming to a close but I need to put something better up that I don't have to keep replacing 1-2 times a year. Thanks Gary KA1J _______________________________________________ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
