-=> On 03-18-98  01:47, Rob Dennis said to Holger Granholm,<=-
-=>"About Antennas......,"<=-
-=> In a message dated 03-09-98, Rob Dennis said to Holger Granholm:
 
Hi, Rob;
 
[Snip]
 
 RD>> My aluminum antennas are over 6 years old and survive nicley with a
 RD>> little normal cleaning every two or three years.
 HG> The trick is to choose metals which have their electromotoric forces
 HG> (polarities) close to each other and if that's not possible, protect
 
 RD> Yep.
 RD> One of the great old debates here locally,and still is,was to use
 RD> some sort of conductive grease to coat the entire long-wire to prevent
 RD> corrosion. End result was uusally a real sticky,gooey mess in the
 RD> summer as the greese  got to running like sap off the antenna.
 
Use a heavier grease?  And I don't believe it would need to be conductive.
After all, you can use insulated or uninsulated wire for an antenna and
either works as well, doesn't it?   :-}
 
 RD>> Stranded wire for me is easier to obtain and cheaper as well by the
 HG> For my W0WO antenna I'm using copper clad insulated telephone line
 RD> 
 RD> Is this a four-line phone wire or something different?
 RD> Canadian and European phone systems being different,I wonder if the
 RD> wires used in them are the same or different as well.
 RD> Our wires are four to make up one line,and some are stranded some are
 RD> not. This is for the inside wire,not the one on the poles.
 
I recommend the really heavy 2-conductor "drop line" that the phone Co.
uses to run from the pole to the house.  That has two farly heavy solid
conductors, a mix of copper and steel, and a really heavy jacket.  It's
VERY strong and practically indestructable!  (It should last forever as
an antenna!)
 
 RD>> Most any electrical supply house has solid wire but charge twice
 RD>> the cost of stranded wire so I choose stranded over solid to save
 HG> Well, most scrap yards should have scrapped telephone line.
 
That's what I am suggesting - the drop line, not the inside-wiring stuff,
which is a lot weaker, and would stretch pretty bad in a 40- or 80-Meter
dipole!
 
 HG> The problem with stranded wire is the acidious water that creeps in
 HG> between all strands and corrode all those thin wires.
 
Seal it with silicone bathtub calk.
 
 RD> I'm going over to the scrapper this weekend looking t0 get about 150
 RD> feet of  solid copper wire to us in making my new 80 and 160 dipole.
 RD> I'd like to get insulated copper,and see how long it will last,but
 RD> most of  what he has is non-insulated.
 
That shouldn't make much difference.  Just seal it with bathtub calk,
Dux-seal, or even bubblegum,  so that moisture can't get to the
connections and you should be ok.
 
73 DE KB9QPM
   Ivy
 
 
 
Double your dipoles. Double your flux.
 
           --
 
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           ³  SysOp: Ivy's WALL BBS - 6 Networks 920-457-9255  ³
           ³             IMHO: 5 WPM for EVERYONE.             ³
           ³           KB9QPM/AE as of 11/19/97 :->>           ³
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