Mike, I seem to remember you saying you made great improvements to your
antenna current by getting rid of plastic insulators. I'm wondering if
looped tie-wraps would be strong enough as there is quite a lot of
tension in each section of my antenna.
Well, I originally used a white plastic water pipe wrapped with black
plastic tape as a spreader for the three top wires. The plastic tape
was used to make the spreader less visible to keep the neighbours
happy. When the current was disappointingly low, I added the
looped cable ties between the wires and the spreader, and improved
the insulation and the current.
As for strength, the weak point of a cable tie is the plastic ratchet
and I do not rely on it. I tie a knot in the free bit of the tie after it has
gone through the ratchet, then wrap that part of it with tape. Rik
suggests that UV may cause deteoration which is certainly worth
bearing in mind, though it would not break the bank to replace them
every year. If you use two, or even three, the effective insulation
increases dramatically as the area of contact between them is very
small. I use them in pairs and notice no difference in the current,
wet or dry.
Do not use plastic twine - I did this and wondered why the antenna
fell down every time I keyed the transmitter in the rain. The plastic
simply melted!
Mike, G3XDV (IO91VT)
http://www.dennison.demon.co.uk/activity.htm
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