Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Two-strand speaker wire over tree limb  (Read 316 times)

K2WPM

  • Member
  • Posts: 53
Two-strand speaker wire over tree limb
« on: March 21, 2023, 06:54:44 PM »

Most of my operating is portable.  Often shooting wire over tree limbs.  For the first time this past weekend, I used two-strand insulated speaker wire (real cheap at big box store).  What a joy to use!  No snarling or tangles.
I soldered the ends together (not a folded dipole).  Put a loop on one end and a lug at the rig end.  Attached the loop end to kite string.  Shot it over a tree limb.  The wire slipped right over that limb.  Like a physic through a goose.  But much cleaner.  :-/
Highly recommended.
73,
David, K2WPM
Logged

AE0Q

  • Member
  • Posts: 414
    • AE0Q Amateur Radio
Re: Two-strand speaker wire over tree limb
« Reply #1 on: March 21, 2023, 07:29:01 PM »

Most of my operating is portable.  Often shooting wire over tree limbs.

Hmmm, wires in trees seem to attract Park Rangers in some State parks where they don't like/allow those.

I never do it in the parks I go to in Colorado, mostly because the coniferous trees are so dense you can't get near the trunk or branches, or else because at 9400 ft elevation the trees are stunted and shorter than my 32 ft mast :-)



I have no idea if it is OK to string wires in trees here, but I don't need to find out !

Glenn AE0Q
« Last Edit: March 21, 2023, 07:50:16 PM by AE0Q »
Logged
NSGA Edzell 1974-77  CTM2  GM5BKC : NSGA Rota 1972-74   ZB2WZ, SV0WY
https://radioandtravels.blogspot.com/
http://www.qsl.net/ae0q/

WB6BYU

  • Member
  • Posts: 20896
    • Practical Antennas
Re: Two-strand speaker wire over tree limb
« Reply #2 on: March 21, 2023, 07:44:44 PM »

Quote from: K2WPM

...  For the first time this past weekend, I used two-strand insulated speaker wire (real cheap at big box store).  What a joy to use!  No snarling or tangles.



Why 2 wires?

i use stranded, insulated hookup wire, typically #26 to
#22 for backpacking, perhaps up to #18 for bigger
events (like Field Day).  The single strand is lighter than
two conductors.

But generally I put a rope over the branch first, then use
it to pull up the antenna, rather than trying to shoot the
wire over a branch on its own.

Although it's true that on hills over 8000' or so, the
trees tend to be somewhat on the short side.  I've had
to get pretty creative on occasion - like tying the antenna
between two rock outcrops with a 300' drop between them.

K5LXP

  • Member
  • Posts: 6823
    • homeURL
Re: Two-strand speaker wire over tree limb
« Reply #3 on: March 22, 2023, 05:20:51 AM »

Years ago I bought a spool of flexweave wire and it's some tough stuff.  Being matte black, it disappears among branches and foliage.  Rangers don't get fussy about what they can't see.

Mark K5LXP
Albuquerque, NM
Logged

K4PIH

  • Member
  • Posts: 117
Re: Two-strand speaker wire over tree limb
« Reply #4 on: March 22, 2023, 05:49:22 AM »

I've used that stranded cheap speaker wire for years to make antennas, typically for 10 meters. It can handle up to 50 watts and degrades from the elements pretty quickly. I had a 10 meter vertical dipole antenna while in South Korea, running 15 watts, never had an issue and worked the world during a good solar cycle.
Logged

AE0Q

  • Member
  • Posts: 414
    • AE0Q Amateur Radio
Re: Two-strand speaker wire over tree limb
« Reply #5 on: March 22, 2023, 07:15:54 AM »

I've used that stranded cheap speaker wire for years to make antennas, typically for 10 meters. It can handle up to 50 watts and degrades from the elements pretty quickly.

I'm sure any speaker wire can handle much more than 100w.  I used to put up an "invisible" 80m dipole at my townhouse on weekends made from #28 enameled mag-wire and it worked great.  The spool had so many thousands of feet on it I just balled it up on Monday mornings and threw it away :-)

Glenn AE0Q
Logged
NSGA Edzell 1974-77  CTM2  GM5BKC : NSGA Rota 1972-74   ZB2WZ, SV0WY
https://radioandtravels.blogspot.com/
http://www.qsl.net/ae0q/

KL7CW

  • Member
  • Posts: 1162
Re: Two-strand speaker wire over tree limb
« Reply #6 on: March 22, 2023, 10:48:05 AM »

In past decades I lost some antennas and pull lines in trees.  I always felt bad since they may be there for decades.  For decades now I usually just use something like an easily breakable string to hoist my dipole or whatever up near a limb.  If things get stuck I can just jerk on the feedline or antenna, the string will break, and little or nothing is stuck in a tree.  Now cotton kite string (if it is even available now) is not easy to pull over limbs but should last for a few outings for sure.  I have an extendable (Jackite ?) pole about 32 ? feet long.  Often I just hook my antenna to the top or near the top of the pole, and lean the pole into a tree limb, or perhaps bungi it to a fence, or something.  Also sometimes I stand on a picnic table and just place my wire on a branch perhaps 40 feet above the ground. 
   If you use your speaker wire antenna, and need a little more length, one option is to short the far end, but feed your rig into only one of the two wires.  However since the wires are so close spaced with unknown insulation, probably there is significant loss, but your rig may be able to be loaded.  I have done this in the field when I did not have enough wire.  This is called linear loading.  If your wire is 33 feet long, it will be resonant near 7 MHz.  If you only run power up one leg, the wire will act roughly like perhaps a 50 foot piece of wire...so possibly with your ATU your 40 meter quarter wave wire might be "useable" on 80 meters. 
    Linear loading is usually not the best option, and even a less than perfect loading coil will usually be better.  If the wires were well spaced and insulated, and the return wire did not come all the way back to the tuner, the efficiency will be better, but again a coil with clip leads, is easy, and often better.           Rick  KL7CW
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up