Hello all, I received lots of emails concerning my "Bead-Wire Antenna." I've decided to post on the reflectors rather than send out to each Individual op.
Here's what I did to make my antenna. I went out to my local craft store called " The Rag Shop" and bought a 40' spool of flexible bead wire. This stuff is very strong, has a clear tough plastic coating over it, but won't take solder. My wire has seven strands to it. It comes on a plastic spool that's about 2.75" in diameter and 5/8" thick. It even has a clear plastic cover that snaps over half the spool to keep the wire etc on the spool. The wire measures .012" in diameter so it's very small and light. In fact my 40' of wire and 40' fishing line with spool weighs-in at less than 1oz! I tie one end of the bead wire to 40' of 30lb test fishing line. On the on the fishing line I tie a loop. I tie about an 1" loop on the end of the fishing line so I can attach a 1oz lead sinker. The sinker is one that is egg shaped and has a wire loop at the top. In the field I simlpy slip the fishing line loop through the wire loop and double back over the sinker. This makes for a solid tie that can be taken off easily anytime. This sinker makes it easy to throw up the bead wire into a tree too. At present I use three ground radials each 16' in length made from #26 black stealh wire. I plan to make my ground radials out of the bead-wire too to save on space and weight. I tried this setup yesterday in my back yard with my KX1. On 30m I had 4.0W out with a 1.0:1 swr. On 20m I have 3.8w out with a swr of 1.2:1 and on 40m I have 2.8w out with a swr of 1.1:1. My entire trail radio package weighs-in at 1.6lb. Here's what I use on the AT: Radio: KX1 with 30m option Battery: Powerizer 11.1V 1800mah 3-cell Lithium Polymer ~4.5oz Antenna: Bead-Wire Ant. Attached with 2-post to bnc adapter Paddle: AT Paddle Mini (plugs directly into KX1, 3.5mm stero plug) The entire package stores in a small camera case! p.s. You can buy silver coated bead wire to solder to, but it's expensive! 72, Ed,WA3WSJ _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
