Hi Eric I am not sure about dacron.....but it might not be the conduction
through the water laden "rope" it might be that you have a corona problem.
At that power level its like playing a small flame on the support structure,
then once there is a bit of carbonisation its all "downhill". Do you have
circular "corona rings" at every wire end and sharp bend?? I think this will
help a lot. The guys here have used all sorts of plastic off-cuts for
insulators....down to old tooth brush handles (!!) at 600W or so. Any
plastic can carbonise but its a lot lighter than pyrex or ceramic
Cheers de ALan G3NYK
[email protected]
----- Original Message -----
From: "Eric KD5UWL" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: 23 December 2003 17:48
Subject: LF: insulators
The new XFX flattop is coming together. Where the flattop wires connect
to the aluminum spreaders I need some insulators. With lower power I've
used electric fence insulators, but I'm afraid that won't be enough here.
I've considered using these insulators anyway, attaching the flattop wires
to the insulators, and then the insulators to the spreaders using some
kind of fiber (dacron, etc), but I'm afraid that when this gets wet I'll
be in trouble.
What about using monofilament at this point? Seems like I once read
someone having success using heavy weedeater line, saying that it doesn't
hold water like some kind of rope would.
Has anyone tried this? How does it stand up to the sun? Any better
suggestions?
73
Eric
|
