I drew the wire for my first antenna about 40 years ago. That was for a quad utilizing solid copper. Since then,I have made numerous dipoles, all using stranded THHN or THWN 12g wire. My method has always been to anchor one end to a tree or a bumper hitch and hold the free end with a pair of Vise grip pliers. The advantage of the armstrong method is you can feel the draw and sense when it nears its limit. The force require to continue drawing the wire escalates and then failure occurs. In practice, I lay out a tape measure on the ground beneath the wire to be drawn. Once I have my rough length of wire, I will draw it about 10% more in length. (Example: 1/4wave for 7.010 mHz is 33.3' so I will draw to about 36.7'.)This has been enough to prevent additional stretching once the antenna is up in the air. The thermoplastic insulation degrades well before the wire fails and my oldest antenna up at the moment is my 40m dipole, it's about 12 years old. 73,Jim W5QM
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