Hi all,
what’s the smallest and lightest wire that’s practically usable for antenna purposes? Of course 30AWG copper enamel wire is small and light, but it is not practical. UL wire is the obvious choice, it is very practical, but it is not actually very small and light. I have used some 0.15mm² PVC insulated wire, but it is a bit bulky given how weak it is.
I have a 40/30/20 EFHW (with a removable SMA link for 30m) - rated at 25W for CW/SSB - made of 22AWG plastic covered wire. It weighs 113g include the impedance-matching box and 40/30m link (but excluding the plastic winder it’s kept on, the protective bag I carry it in, the 2m-long counterpoise wire and the 2m long coax feeder). Frankly, the weight of HF wire antennas is negligible compared to everything else I carry (including my excess body fat).
I have probably used it about 30-40 times a year since 2017 including in strong winds and never had a problem.
I’ve built countless wire antennas…
For simple end-fed designs, I usually use 0.14 mm stranded wire — it’s very lightweight and easy to coil up compactly. It doesn’t put enough strain on the fiberglass mast to cause significant bending.
For more compact antennas that include a coil or traps, I prefer something a bit sturdier. In those cases, I use 0.22 mm stranded wire. This is available in various versions, too — with more strands or thicker insulation.
One thing all my antenna wires have in common is that I always choose yellow insulation; it’s the easiest to see.
It’s a good idea to check all these wire antennas from time to time to see if they’ve stretched, as that causes the SWR to shift.
If the antenna has no coil or traps, I always coil it up, just as Ignacio @EA2BD demonstrates so wonderfully in the video.
73 Armin
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I had a reel of a Belden PTFE insulated Silver plated wire. Of course the reel has some wire left but who knows where it is or I would give you the make. I think it was 7 strand and the diameter including the insulation is 0.85mm and it’s black.
I made up a clone of my 20/30/40m trapped EFHW using SOTAbeams traps. If I hadn’t put streamers on it then it would be completely invisible in the air. As soon as I find the reel I’ll add the number for it.
I think the lightweight antenna wire sold by SotaBeams is a good starting point. It is spec’d as 24 AWG equivalent and has served me well for many field antenna builds.
73, Jared, N7MAW
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Lightweight is one of my key criteria for SOTA et al. Two products I suggest you consider.
One is: Antenna Wire, Stealth, 26 AWG Stranded Copper Clad Steel, UV Resistant Black PE Insulation from DX Engineering. Similar to Polystealth but available in Europe. Very light, very strong, does not kink. Hard to beat in my experience.
The second one is simply coated steel fishing wire. Extremely light, very strong, also doesn’t kink - and is cheap. A bit harder to use because you can’t solder it. Resistance is higher, but at RF levels that hardly matters in my experience (and tests that others have done on wire materials).
In terms of practicality and weightlessness I find these two dominate the alternatives - I don’t use silicon-coated wire and similar any longer. The only downside may be that once up in the air these wires are difficult to see.
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Ha, found the reel.
Belden HP26SBA.0325 which is 7/0.15mm SPCW PTFE, Silver plated copper wire.
So that is a 26AWG wire.
I don’t think it’s made any more as Element14 suggest a similar product by a company called Rex. Their product sells for c. €40 for an 82ft (aka 25m) reel. I got 20m for £3 at a rally.
Thanks, that’s probably the stuff I am looking for!
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Is there a EU reseller? I am not finding one for part number DXE-SANTW-150. Usually Wimo has DX Engineering products but not this.
Spiderbeam has Polystealth 22 AWG, a bit thicker than the 26 AWG DX Engineering wire.
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I often use stranded, insulated AWG #26 (0.4mm, BWG #27) hookup wire for portable antennas. I have spools in several colors, so I can choose stealth or visibility as circumstances require. It’s about 2 g/m, and the spool ends that I get at hamfests are often quite cheap: I once got a mile of assorted colors and lengths all wound together on a big spool for $5. I don’t know the specs on most of it, but it still works. (A local electronic surplus shop used to sell wire by the pound for the scrap price of the copper.)
My first dipole kit used AWG #22 (0.65mm, BWG #23) wire, and it has traveled half way around the world from Denmark WA to Sydney NS, and after ~45 years I haven’t yet broken a wire (except the bare ends that I attach to the center insulator). The important thing is that the insulation adds strength to such small wires, so I tie all my knots in the insulated portion rather than the stripped ends.
I probably could go smaller, like AWG #28 or #30 (0.25mm), but all I have in that size is solid wire-wrap wire, which isn’t as easy to deal with as stranded wire. Besides, the weight for most of my antennas is already insignificant compared to everything else.
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I ordered directly from DX Engineering, they ship to Europe. Shipping is not cheap, but I got a large spool which will last for quite some time.
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As I mentioned in my original post, I am already familiar with DX Wire UL wire. It’s what I currently use. It is excellent, superb, fantastic antenna wire, truly the “right way to go” where possible and practical. High conductivity copper wires wrapped around Kevlar-type fibers means it has excellent electrical properties, is easy to solder, and is damned near unbreakable.
However UL wire is a bit too bulky for the pocket-size SOTA setup I am building. So I am looking for something even smaller.
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Oh, okay, then I misunderstood your post. I assumed you meant there was an EU reseller, which is always nice given the vagaries of international shipping and customs.
I didn’t make it clear enough regarding the sourcing.The alternative of stainless steel fishing wire is a real alternative, so lightweight, strong and cheap. The DC resistance is about 10 ohms per metre, but at RF frequencies this does hardly matter. In my tests I could not detect a significant difference.
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I use the cheap and simple 24 awg wire from sotabeams: Buy 500m lightweight Antenna Wire | Ham Radio Antenna Wire Online | RF Cables, Cords and Wires
Less strong but much easier to roll and pack compared to the fancy DX wire.
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Will give it a try.
Comparison of outside diameters:
- 1.60mm – DX Wire UL
- 1.2mm – SotaBeams Lightweight Antenna Wire 0.22mm²
- 1.04m – DX Engineering Stealth 26 AWG
- 1.01mm – PolyStealth 26 AWG
Stainless steel sounds interesting. Hopefully braided wire is available. Solid core stainless wire tends to kink when wrapped on a wire winder. Soldering is obviously not possible. I suppose the only way to make an electrical connection is through crimping or screw terminals.
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The fishing wire is braided and rock solid, I have it on a winder. And yes, I screw it or use a wago connector. Something like this, but smaller, like 12kg breaking strength.
This could be different when considering the skin effect. For this reason, the copper-plated steel wire #26 is generally not recommended for frequencies below 3.5 MHz …
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