Greetings:

Today, while perusing the wares at a local marine outfitting
store, I came upon 300 foot reels of 20ga. 7-strand copper
wire intended for use as "fishing cable". The price is
roughly 6.7 cents/foot and the sample I was given appeared
to be no different from wire sold for electrical purposes
except for the very tight twist and strong tensile strength.
To me it looks like great antenna wire at a good price
in view of the copper bubble. I don't have a milliohmmeter
so I cannot conduct conductivity tests other than to say
that a few inches of it zeros a DMM.

Has anyone used this material?

Regards,

Michael

msg wrote:

Greetings:

Today, while perusing the wares at a local marine outfitting
store, I came upon 300 foot reels of 20ga. 7-strand copper
wire intended for use as "fishing cable". The price is
roughly 6.7 cents/foot and the sample I was given appeared
to be no different from wire sold for electrical purposes
except for the very tight twist and strong tensile strength.
To me it looks like great antenna wire at a good price
in view of the copper bubble. I don't have a milliohmmeter
so I cannot conduct conductivity tests other than to say
that a few inches of it zeros a DMM.

Has anyone used this material?


No. But if it's for shortwave, in my early days I have used all kinds of
wire. Including some kind of clothesline with a galvanized core and it
all worked fine. The only thing that got hot and occasionally exploded
were the baluns.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

On Wed, 27 Jun 2007 22:27:12 -0500, msg wrote:

Greetings:

Today, while perusing the wares at a local marine outfitting store, I came
upon 300 foot reels of 20ga. 7-strand copper wire intended for use as
"fishing cable". The price is roughly 6.7 cents/foot and the sample I was
given appeared to be no different from wire sold for electrical purposes
except for the very tight twist and strong tensile strength. To me it
looks like great antenna wire at a good price in view of the copper
bubble. I don't have a milliohmmeter so I cannot conduct conductivity
tests other than to say that a few inches of it zeros a DMM.

Has anyone used this material?

I found "hard drawn" copper wire used for safety and ground on suspended
chandeliers also works great. It's about the same cost but comes in may
gages.

Today, while perusing the wares at a local marine outfitting
store, I came upon 300 foot reels of 20ga. 7-strand copper
wire intended for use as "fishing cable".

Cable TV uses a multi-core cable with aluminum shield. If suspended above
ground between houses then there is also a steel wire around it, at least in
my area. The steel makes a good antenna, and a thumb-tack makes a good
contact with the aluminum shield.

Fence-wire in our neighborhood makes a good 160-meter antenna, and it is
already erected ;-)

Try loading your 80-metre TX into the telephone cable, providing it does not
lead underground.

In Northern climates they have 2 parallel 20-metre long metal rod,s like a
ships handrail, to stop snow sliding off the roof and burying passers-by. Go
inside the roof space and connect to it.

There are loads of ready-made antennas without having to buy anything at
all. Just use some of them when the neighbours are asleep (in this area that
is during the day).

CK

Are you suggesting to load the transmitter RF output into the shield of the
existing live CATV drop cable? You'll wreak havoc with the network and
you'll destroy any trust that exists between the local ham community and the
Cable company. This is a horrible suggestion! Same goes for loading up the
phone line with RF

Ignore this one guys - be responsible!

Joe
W3JDR


"Charles" wrote in message
...
Today, while perusing the wares at a local marine outfitting
store, I came upon 300 foot reels of 20ga. 7-strand copper
wire intended for use as "fishing cable".

Cable TV uses a multi-core cable with aluminum shield. If suspended above
ground between houses then there is also a steel wire around it, at least
in
my area. The steel makes a good antenna, and a thumb-tack makes a good
contact with the aluminum shield.

Fence-wire in our neighborhood makes a good 160-meter antenna, and it is
already erected ;-)

Try loading your 80-metre TX into the telephone cable, providing it does
not
lead underground.

In Northern climates they have 2 parallel 20-metre long metal rod,s like a
ships handrail, to stop snow sliding off the roof and burying passers-by.
Go
inside the roof space and connect to it.

There are loads of ready-made antennas without having to buy anything at
all. Just use some of them when the neighbours are asleep (in this area
that
is during the day).

CK

On 9 Jul, 04:29, "W3JDR" wrote:
Are you suggesting to load the transmitter RF output into the shield of the
existing live CATV drop cable? You'll wreak havoc with the network and
you'll destroy any trust that exists between the local ham community and the
Cable company. This is a horrible suggestion! Same goes for loading up the
phone line with RF

Ignore this one guys - be responsible!

Joe
W3JDR

"Charles" wrote in message

... Today, while perusing the wares at a local marine outfitting
store, I came upon 300 foot reels of 20ga. 7-strand copper
wire intended for use as "fishing cable".

Cable TV uses a multi-core cable with aluminum shield. If suspended above
ground between houses then there is also a steel wire around it, at least
in
my area. The steel makes a good antenna, and a thumb-tack makes a good
contact with the aluminum shield.

Fence-wire in our neighborhood makes a good 160-meter antenna, and it is
already erected ;-)

Try loading your 80-metre TX into the telephone cable, providing it does
not
lead underground.

In Northern climates they have 2 parallel 20-metre long metal rod,s like a
ships handrail, to stop snow sliding off the roof and burying passers-by.
Go
inside the roof space and connect to it.

There are loads of ready-made antennas without having to buy anything at
all. Just use some of them when the neighbours are asleep (in this area
that
is during the day).

CK

With this suggestion solving the aerial problem then you need a good
ground to go with it. Maybe you could tie one end of a spool of wire
to a wad of paper and flush that down the toilet. When the spool
unwinds to the end you just connect that to the ground lug on your ham
rig and you have a long counterpoise wire installed underground. It
is even inside a protective conduit. What more could you ask for?
LOL

Arv

On Jul 9, 8:29 am, "W3JDR" wrote:
Are you suggesting to load the transmitter RF output into the shield of the
existing live CATV drop cable? You'll wreak havoc with the network and
you'll destroy any trust that exists between the local ham community and the
Cable company. This is a horrible suggestion! Same goes for loading up the
phone line with RF

Ignore this one guys - be responsible!

Joe
W3JDR

"Charles" wrote in message

...



Today, while perusing the wares at a local marine outfitting
store, I came upon 300 foot reels of 20ga. 7-strand copper
wire intended for use as "fishing cable".

Cable TV uses a multi-core cable with aluminum shield. If suspended above
ground between houses then there is also a steel wire around it, at least
in
my area. The steel makes a good antenna, and a thumb-tack makes a good
contact with the aluminum shield.

Fence-wire in our neighborhood makes a good 160-meter antenna, and it is
already erected ;-)

Try loading your 80-metre TX into the telephone cable, providing it does
not
lead underground.

In Northern climates they have 2 parallel 20-metre long metal rod,s like a
ships handrail, to stop snow sliding off the roof and burying passers-by.
Go
inside the roof space and connect to it.

There are loads of ready-made antennas without having to buy anything at
all. Just use some of them when the neighbours are asleep (in this area
that
is during the day).

CK- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I am not a ham; but got a response from a G amateur who confirmed he
used plastic coated steel cored clothesline wire for his antennae in
northern Britain.
He mentioned he was located in a fairly windy area and said that even
though the plastic eventually cracked and the wire corroded it lasted
quite a few years and was strong and reasonably cheap.
For occasional 'quick and dirty' receiving I capacitively couple my
receiver to our steel cored clothesline (all of 6 feet above ground!)
by wrapping some turns of wire around it. BTW I must go and bring in
the towels drying on it!
Have also used the steel messenger wire stripped/salvaged from
scrapped cable TV drops. Cable techs sometimes just abandon it and or
will give you the old when they install a new replacement drop.
Cheers.