Hi Gary, I've used bare 14 AWG solid bare copper wire with good success in shallow buried radial systems. It would be a poor choice in corrosive soil (my heavy clay soil is not corrosive).
I use 16 AWG stranded insulated copper wire for radials for temporary receiving arrays in areas with heavy foot traffic by herds of white tail deer. 73 Frank W3LPL ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gary K9GS" <garyk...@wi.rr.com> To: topband@contesting.com Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2014 1:24:20 AM Subject: Re: Topband: Radial Wire Frank, Thank you very much for this source. I was just looking this week for wire prices. I want to buy quite a lot for next summer's antenna project. The nice thing is he's close enough I'll probably pick it up and save shipping. BTW...any thoughts on solid vs stranded? I do like to use insulated wire as I think it lasts longer. I was thinking 16 or 18 ga. On 10/22/2014 1:17 PM, donov...@starpower.net wrote: > iwc2carl on ebay is my favorite supplier of bulk wire. He's very reliable, > consistently less expensive (including shipping) than the retail stores and > electrical wholesalers, ships in a few days and you can't beat the > convenience of delivery direct to your door. He almost always accepts > an offer of 90% of his asking price. > > http://www.ebay.com/sch/iwc2carl/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from= > > For radials I typically use 1000 foot reels of 16 AWG stranded for $50.00 > per reel plus ten dollars for shipping. > > 73 > Frank > W3LPL > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Jim Brown" <j...@audiosystemsgroup.com> > To: topband@contesting.com > Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2014 6:42:03 PM > Subject: Topband: Radial Wire > > On 6/26/2014 2:24 PM, Bill Wichers wrote: >> You can get solid thhn. Some codes even require it, but it is much less >> common. I've seen Home Depot stock it before. > Solid #12 and #14 THHN on 500 ft spools is stocked by every Home Depot > and Lowes store I have visited. They even offer a discount (10% on 5 or > 6 spools, I think). I prefer #14 solid because it seems to remain in > place a bit better than stranded. I would use #18 if it were widely > available at good prices. > > 73, Jim K9YC > > > _________________ > Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband > > _________________ > Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband > > > -- > 73, > > Gary K9GS > > Greater Milwaukee DX Association: http://www.gmdxa.org > Society of Midwest Contesters: http://www.w9smc.com > CW Ops #1032 http://www.cwops.org > > ************************************************ _________________ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband _________________ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband