Anything that doesn't break in the weather is thick enough, within limits.
Drive 1000 Watts into 28 gauge copper, it may fall out of the sky into little molten puddles on the ground.
And kind of a bummer to have to go out and climb trees to fix broken antenna wire during an ice/wind/rain storm.
Galvanized steel is less conductive than copper,? I doubt you would notice the difference, except it's stronger.
Copper clad steel is available, seems a good idea, I've never used it:??
Hard drawn copper is stronger than standard copper wire, often used for antennas.
You may have a local HRO storefront:?
they have lots of different antenna products.
Disconnect your equipment if an electrical storm is in the area.
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On Sun, Feb 25, 2018 at 03:59 pm, Mark wrote:
For QRP I'd only need #17?
There's a write-up on this type of wire purchased from tractor supply stores, entitled, Does wire gauge (size) make any difference for vertical antenna radials?, at eHam.net.
They say that some antenna manufactures suggest 14. I guess that is possibly because it is used for base stations with 100 or more watts.
However, for my specific QRP & mobile situation, maybe 17 would be fine. It would also be a bit lighter.
Would reception improve if it were copper? Or, maybe for something like this it wouldn't really matter.
