Re: Balun Questions

[Jim Brown-10]

On Wed,2/10/2016 10:37 AM, Nels Nelsen wrote:
> multistrand copper coated steel is longer lasting.

Not in my experience -- my neighbor hung a dipole strung with copperweld
(what you're describing, I think) in some trees with tension on it and
with pulleys and weights to deal with tree sway. It was on the ground a
day or two later -- the stuff was quite brittle, and simply broke.

I really hate copperweld, and would never consider using it.

> Just remember this when you start trouble shooting strange swr in a couple of years. Copper breaks so easy.Go to the Wireman.com for some good wire.

The wireman is a decent vendor, but I buy my antenna wire from big box
stores.

73, Jim K9YC
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[Don Wilhelm-4]

Copperweld is "nasty" stuff IMHO.  If you can support it so it will not
flex, you can tension it greater than plain copper.  But it 'remembers'
the coils it had on the wire spool and will spring back to those coils
if allowed to remain free and untensioned.  If you pull it while it has
a kink in it, the game is over, that kink will become a spot for failure.

That is part of why I prefer hard drawn copper wire for my antennas.  I
use stranded #14.  The stranded will endure more flexing than solid
wire, and will not kink as easily as copperweld.

Any antenna wire will be subject to some flexing (from wind if nothing
else), so plan on that - that is especially true if you are using trees
as supports.  Even though you may have a system that allows the trees to
move in the wind without stressing the antenna wire, there will still be
flexing of the wire when those trees move.

Those reasons are why I use stranded hard drawn copper wire.  All my
antennas are resonant.  For those who are using non-resonant antennas,
stranded copper wire (not hard drawn) will usually suffice because some
elongation of the wire is not likely to hurt anything.

So the bottom line answer is "it all depends" on your planned antennas
and how much variation you can tolerate.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 2/10/2016 6:42 PM, Jim Brown wrote:

> On Wed,2/10/2016 10:37 AM, Nels Nelsen wrote:
>> multistrand copper coated steel is longer lasting.
>
> Not in my experience -- my neighbor hung a dipole strung with
> copperweld (what you're describing, I think) in some trees with
> tension on it and with pulleys and weights to deal with tree sway. It
> was on the ground a day or two later -- the stuff was quite brittle,
> and simply broke.
>
> I really hate copperweld, and would never consider using it.
>
>> Just remember this when you start trouble shooting strange swr in a
>> couple of years. Copper breaks so easy.Go to the Wireman.com for some
>> good wire.
>
> The wireman is a decent vendor, but I buy my antenna wire from big box
> stores.
>

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[Kevin Stover]

Totally agree.
I built a dipole one time and fed it with the 450 Ohm window line
everybody likes to use.
I twisted the ends of the window line and crimped a couple of terminals
on the ends. If it was going to be a permanent antenna I would have
soldered it.

Two years later when I took it down I disconnected the window line from
the 1:1 current balun and the terminals came off in my hand. Apparently
when I twisted the strands before crimping the connectors I removed some
of the copper. The steel wire underneath had rusted to dust a good six
inches back. No more window line here, doesn't matter who sells it, and
no more copper weld.

On 2/10/2016 5:59 PM, Don Wilhelm wrote:
> Copperweld is "nasty" stuff IMHO.  If you can support it so it will
> not flex, you can tension it greater than plain copper.  But it
> 'remembers' the coils it had on the wire spool and will spring back to
> those coils if allowed to remain free and untensioned.  If you pull it
> while it has a kink in it, the game is over, that kink will become a
> spot for failure.
>
>


--
R. Kevin Stover
AC0H
ARRL
FISTS #11993
SKCC #215
NAQCC #3441


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