On Jun 6, 7:35 pm, "merlin-7" wrote:
If I used electric fence wire for my RF ground radials, how long do you all
think it would last?

I know the type of soil matters so lets go almost worst case, lets not go
so far as to say it has a high salt content.
I am just looking for something fast and cheap that I can do when I move to
my new QTH and will add proper copper wire, one by one as I can afford or
find deals on something better.
Do you think it may last a year or so?

Thanks Joe
KI4ILB

Hi, Joe.
There are several kinds of electric fence wire. I just bought a spool,
1300' or so, of aluminum wire. There is electro-galvanized steel,
also. The electro gives a smooth coating, but doesn't last.

What might be better is the stainless steel wire used to wrap
telephone cable and cable TV cable to a messenger wire suspended from
poles. If you examine such a line carefully, you will see the spiral
wrap of wire holding is all together. The installers use a sliding
wrapping tool with a spool of the wire spinning around the cables as
they pull it along from the ground.

Several years ago my neighbor gave me a spool of it he found along the
road after the installation crew went through with new cable. The
spool was a rats nest of wire. So, they must have discarded it rather
than take the time to rewind it. Anyway, it is about the same diameter
as fence wire.

I suspect if you see either the telephone or cable TV installation
crew, you might ask if they had any unusable wrap wire. Might get it
for free!

Good luck with the project.
Paul, KD7HB