New Antenna - Another Random Wire
If you remember from a few months back, near the middle of July, I was experimenting with magnet wire antennas. What I came up with that worked the best was using the magnet wire out my window to a tree and using the duct work in the house as my counterpoise. Well, as you can probably imagine the magnet wire didn't last long before it broke. After all, I was using 34 gauge wire.
In order to keep the same stealth approach while bringing up the strength of the wire so it wouldn't break (as easy) I came up with using Surflon leader wire, the kind of stuff that wire leaders for fishing are made out of. The design purpose of the wire is so toothy fish can't bite through your fishing line. The wire is stainless steel and comes in varied strengths, in pound ratings, from 10lbs (what I have) all the way up to a couple hundred pounds, depending on the manufacturer and model.
So I finally got around to putting up my Surflon leader wire antenna. It has been up for a few days now and seems to be fine. It is interesting stuff - it is .015" in diameter and coated with black nylon or teflon. It really is hard to see. I would equate the visibility to be about what the 34 gauge magnet wire was as long as the sun wasn't shining on it (once the sun hit the magnet wire it was like a laser beam - another problem I had with it). I used the normal metal sleeve crimps as the attachment/loop devices. They work quite well and were real easy to install. I put one at the end of my antenna to attach the wire to the support line (30lb test mono) in the tree. Then I used another one at the wall to keep the wire from flying out in to the yard if I let go of it in the shack.
For all the bad press stainless steel wire (or any kind of steel wire for that matter) gets for being a dummy load and non-RF friendly I find that this wire works quite well. My noise level seems to be relatively low. I am still seeing a noise floor of about S4 on 40m CW with my filter set to about 500hz. Before I remember seeing it go up to S9, and if I switch to my loop antenna in the attic that is certainly what I get.
One of my first couple contacts I made with the antenna was on Top Band, if you can believe it! I was calling CQ and Bob W8OLO came back to my call. It wasn't a far contact as Bob is fairly close, within about 50 miles, but it was a contact - and on Top Band (160 meters) of all places.
The antenna is not in the configuration I had originally come up with as an improvement over my old method - I just ran it the same way I ran the magnet wire. I figure I have 300' of it so I tossed a run of it up just to give it a try and get on the air. So far it works fine. Now the next step is improving on this idea and placing it in my updated location. I should be able to get another 20' or so of length, as opposed to my 60-70' or so I have out now.
In order to keep the same stealth approach while bringing up the strength of the wire so it wouldn't break (as easy) I came up with using Surflon leader wire, the kind of stuff that wire leaders for fishing are made out of. The design purpose of the wire is so toothy fish can't bite through your fishing line. The wire is stainless steel and comes in varied strengths, in pound ratings, from 10lbs (what I have) all the way up to a couple hundred pounds, depending on the manufacturer and model.
So I finally got around to putting up my Surflon leader wire antenna. It has been up for a few days now and seems to be fine. It is interesting stuff - it is .015" in diameter and coated with black nylon or teflon. It really is hard to see. I would equate the visibility to be about what the 34 gauge magnet wire was as long as the sun wasn't shining on it (once the sun hit the magnet wire it was like a laser beam - another problem I had with it). I used the normal metal sleeve crimps as the attachment/loop devices. They work quite well and were real easy to install. I put one at the end of my antenna to attach the wire to the support line (30lb test mono) in the tree. Then I used another one at the wall to keep the wire from flying out in to the yard if I let go of it in the shack.
For all the bad press stainless steel wire (or any kind of steel wire for that matter) gets for being a dummy load and non-RF friendly I find that this wire works quite well. My noise level seems to be relatively low. I am still seeing a noise floor of about S4 on 40m CW with my filter set to about 500hz. Before I remember seeing it go up to S9, and if I switch to my loop antenna in the attic that is certainly what I get.
One of my first couple contacts I made with the antenna was on Top Band, if you can believe it! I was calling CQ and Bob W8OLO came back to my call. It wasn't a far contact as Bob is fairly close, within about 50 miles, but it was a contact - and on Top Band (160 meters) of all places.
The antenna is not in the configuration I had originally come up with as an improvement over my old method - I just ran it the same way I ran the magnet wire. I figure I have 300' of it so I tossed a run of it up just to give it a try and get on the air. So far it works fine. Now the next step is improving on this idea and placing it in my updated location. I should be able to get another 20' or so of length, as opposed to my 60-70' or so I have out now.
posted by Steve at
10:24 PM
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