Which Wire for 40 meters
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| May 21st, 10:14 | |
rsaun58043Total Topics: 0 Total Posts: 0 |
Hello all. I'm about to put up a dipole for my first HF attempt with my IC 705. I have dwindled the potential wire down to 18 or 20-gauge stranded copper, copper clad aluminum or solid copper wire. Any recommendations? Regards, WZ4UP |
| May 21st, 17:51 | |
AntennafarmerTotal Topics: 0 Total Posts: 0 |
Hello! I have used all kinds of wire for dipoles. Either of those you listed will work fine for an antenna so long as it doesn't break. Your antenna wire usually supports the feedline and balun (if you have one). The weight of the feed can stretch or break the wire in some cases. I am currently using 14 gage stranded copper on my 40-10 meter fan dipole (it is what I had handy). I like using solid copper better though. W4IQ |
| Sep 21st, 01:07 | |
danazlinTotal Topics: 0 Total Posts: 0 |
Use whatever you have as you will probably go through several iterations of your antenna design before you settle on one for long term use. My first was made from 18AWG insulated stranded hookup wire. Great antenna. For longer term planning, W4IQ is right: you don't want wire that will stretch or break. Breakage is obviously bad. But stretching is more common, especially when using soft copper wire. This will change the resonant point & SWR of your antenna. Long term wire antennas usually are made from wire that will not stretch or break when the wind blows. (Although there are also mechanical methods to mitigate this.) Typically, these are hard drawn copper, copper clad steel, kevlar reinforced copper wire, or something similar. Lots of people get good results from 16 or 14 AWG THHN copper house wire as the jacket helps support the wire and it is big enough to resist stretching excessively. Though YMMV. There is also specialty stealth antenna wire at 22 or 24 AWG whose wire strands are interwoven with strands of Kevlar to add strength. The jacket is UV resistant and the kevlar mitigates the stretch and low strength of the wire. Great wire for stealth antennas. Good luck. KE6PO |
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