Callsign	Required
Password

If you've forgotten and/or need to reset your password, please enter your Callsign and use the button below.

You *must* have a verified email address on the account.

If you are not a member of the eHam community

Please consider registering to e-Ham.

Manager

Manager - NA4M
Manager Notes

Reviews For: Davis RF Flexweave Antenna Wire

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

eMail Subscription

Registered users are allowed to subscribe to specific review topics and receive eMail notifications when new reviews are posted.

Review Summary For : Davis RF Flexweave Antenna Wire
	Reviews: 9	MSRP: Varies with wire size and constr
	Description: Ultra-flexible stranded Aerial Wire. Available as bare copper, tinned copper, and insulated tinned copper.
	Product is in production
More Info: http://www.davisrf.com/ham1/flexweve.htm
# last 180 days	Avg. Rating last 180 days	Total reviews	Avg. overall rating
0	0	9	3.3

K2WPM	Rating:	2021-04-22
Is it wrong to be in love with wire?			Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I love this stuff. Stranded 14 gauge, clear insulated. I stopped buying big box snarly, this stuff is magical. So far (Five years) no problems. 25 cents a foot at HRO.

WA7PRC	Rating:	2014-11-26
VERY Durable			Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've used hard-drawn FlexWeave antenna wire for many years with ZERO issues. Antennas: 80m dipole, 40m dipole (using 12 ga bare) and then later, a 4-wire 80m cage inverted vee using 14 ga PVC-coated. Altogether, over a period of 12 years, the stuff has survived MANY severe storms in Western WA without failure. I can't say the same for soft-drawn house wire. vy 73, Bryan WA7PRC

N3WAK	Rating:	2010-01-05
Good Product!			Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I have built various inverted vee antennas with this wire, from 80 meters to 6 meters. I think the product is excellent. The #12 PVC insulated wire is unbelievably flexible, although the clear PVC insulation is awfully reflective in the sunlight, and I would not recommend it for a stealth antenna. The wire does not appear to have stretched in the very high winds we regularly seem to get in Delaware. I am less enamored of the #14 PE insulated wire. It is still relatively flexible, but not silky-soft like the PVC-insulated wire. I find the PE insulation very difficult to strip off, but stripping the PVC insulation is quite easy. If your wire is going to be abraided by tree branches, I would probably choose the PE insulation; but if the antenna is going to be in the clear, I would use the PVC insulation. My #14 wire is insulated with the black PE coating, which is much, much less visible in the sunlight than the clear PVC coating mentioned above. If you want a lower-visibility wire, I'd stay away from the clear PVC insulation, and choose the black. Either wire, if it is PVC insulated, would be very easy to coil up, and uncoil, and won't tangle, if you want a portable antenna. The PVC insulated wire is as flexible as a bungie cord. This is a great product, and I'll be buying more of it. 73, Tony N3WAK

AA2HA	Rating:	2008-12-16
If you like to climb often			Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This antenna wire may be for you. I used 12 ga. Flexweave for a G5RV senior, 102' on each side. The antenna was at 70' to the center in a pine tree. The ends were anout 30' high. I used pullys and rope on each side to relieve strain. (My previous antenna made if 14 ga. THHN lasted 9 years this way) This one side broke after only 3 weeks. I repaired it to only have the other side break a few weeks later. Not wanting to climb trees any longer, I replaced the Flexweave with 12 ga. THHN. with the exact same supports and pullys. It's been a year and a half with no problems.

DXTUNER	Rating:	2008-11-24
Everything I Wanted It To Be			Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I'm so glad that I take Eham reviews with a grain of salt. I decided to go ahead & try 14 ga. PVC coated Flex-Weave, as I build my own longwires and super-huge loops for LW from insulated wire. (In the past I had much grief with kinks & snarls using TFFN and military spec wire in those roles.) Well, this Davis Flex-weave works fabulously! I take my longwires up & down frequently, move them, bend it sharply around things, etc. -- contrary to the implications by some reviewers this stuff does NOT break like a dry twig. Then again I don't try to support bowling balls with it either. Its antenna wire -- not cable for suspension bridges! Its very easy to work with, is pliable, soft & resilient and, most importantly, gives me top-notch reception on the Icom IC-R75. Everything I want it to be. Oh, and the folks at Davis are pleasant to deal with. I called them, immediately spoke to a friendly person, placed my order, and almost instantly received an invoice e-mail & tracking number. Excellent experience, especially these days.

NT9M	Rating:	2006-08-29
No problems here			Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I used the insulated Flexweave, 14 gauge I think. It's been in the air about three years now...over 400 feet of wire in an 80 meter loop configuration. I did leave two corners "floating" to relieve some of the strain from wind blowing my tree supports. No problems at all...and it sure solders much easier than the stuff I was using before. I would buy it again without hesitation. 73 W9THD

K4GPB	Rating:	2006-08-28
6 Years and it's still up			Time Owned: more than 12 months.
My antenna is a 60-foot long end inverted L to near the top of a 35-foot pine tree. No real heavy tension on it; it's tarnished to match the twigs on the trees at my antenna restricted QTH. Easy to work with and solder.

K8XQ	Rating:	2006-08-28
absolute Garbage			Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I bought enough of theur # 12 to make a 75 meter center fed dipole. It sounded like such a great product I took down my Vangorden All-Bander and put up the inverted vee and it did not last 6 months before it broke.

K9YC	Rating:	2004-06-23
Sounds great, but isn't.			Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
This is a product that I would love to love, becauase the product concept sounds great -- a super flexible antenna wire, #14, #12, and #10, made from many strands of small gauge copper. Unfortunately, the concept is all wrong -- any stressing and flexing of the small strands causes the wire to break. Antennas built using this wire simply don't hold up if they are subjected to normal stresses. One that I installed on a mountain in CA had broken at three places in only a few months. A local ham (K9IKZ) told me that his lasted a bit more than a year on his tower in Chicago. Save yourself a lot of money by heading to your local electrical supply store where you can buy a 500 ft spool of insulated copper house wire for half the cost of Flex-Weave. If it's going to be stressed, buy a heavier gauge and hard draw it yourself by tying one end to something solid and pulling on the other end with your vehicle. No problem with Davis RF -- nice people, good service, and I'll happily buy other stuff from them. But Flex-Weave is simply not good antenna wire -- at least not in my part of the real world.

Category:

Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

Product:

Davis RF Flexweave Antenna Wire

Summary:

Rating:	Time Owned:
Great! Good OK Needs Help Poor Awful!	0 - 3 Months 3 - 6 Months 6 - 12 Months More than 12 Months

Remarks:

Describe your experience with the Davis RF Flexweave Antenna Wire and tell us why you give it the rating you did (required). Other useful information would include your experience with similar products, infomation on a product that you would purchase instead of this one, and so on.