The AM Forum

Chewy.com, a pet supplies company has wire on sale cheap. It is sold for the underground dog fence application. You can get a 500 foot roll for $13.50 plus shipping.


PetSafe Extra Boundary Wire for Containment System By PetSafe

https://www.chewy.com/petsafe-extra-boundary-wire/dp/52011

Each spool is 500 ft/150 meters of 20 gauge, solid core, burial-grade wire.

Seems like a good deal.

Beware the spool.


Its a good price, but the roll of the pet stuff at the Homely Despot didn't have a continuous spool.... so when  I  " staked it to the tundra with a long screwdrivr, I got about 60'  down the driveway before I felt a hang up -  the 430 '  feet left the split reel.  Lots of fun untangeling this mess.

KLC

I checked ePay and it look like you can geT a spool for $10.

Nice stuff Steve, I wonder what it is, copper or steel?

If you need HV wire for that new transmitter?

At Tractor supply they sell underground high voltage wire. (insulation rated up to 20,000 volts, this 14 gauge, Class III galvanized wire) About $17.00 for 50 feet. That is a lot better price than copper stuff I see on ePay?  High voltage for short lengths doesn't care if it copper or other alloys.  

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/zareba-50-ft-underground-insulated-hookup-wire?cm_vc=-10005 (https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/zareba-50-ft-underground-insulated-hookup-wire?cm_vc=-10005)


I just did some snooping on ePay and found this really nice wire,

https://www.ebay.com/itm/10M-32-8Ft-22AWG-40KV-Electric-Copper-Core-Flexible-Silicone-Wire-Cable-Red/391936654326?epid=26012039715&hash=item5b413ebbf6:g:TcgAAOSw9hdaH3Zx (https://www.ebay.com/itm/10M-32-8Ft-22AWG-40KV-Electric-Copper-Core-Flexible-Silicone-Wire-Cable-Red/391936654326?epid=26012039715&hash=item5b413ebbf6:g:TcgAAOSw9hdaH3Zx)

According to a wire chart 22 gauge wire can handle up to 5 amperes so that means at 6 KV  you could run 30 KW. Can you hear me now?

The Despot stuff is Cu.

KLC

I bought some. I'll let you know if its copper or aluminum.

It's solid copper.

Cool that it's copper! Time for me to buy some and build a beverage antenna?

Steve, do you have any special antennas in mind for that wire? The other question I have is, just how much power can be transmitted with #20 wire? Wire is sometimes rated for open air and separately for inclosed use for obvious reasons. 

Is there a point with the power levels that we can legally use on ham radio a problem too much for that wire? I guess I asked the same question twice?   

I used the stuff for radials, the yellow color makes it a bit visible.

As far as using it for "power"; making the numbers ok, forgetting the reactive parts, skin effect, temperature and the earths rotation...  100W into  50 Ohms works out to be around 1.414 amps... The ampacity is around 5 A for #20 AWG, so I guess your good to go fer a few watts.

With the weather around here, Mr. Zapa would find some of my radials interesting.


klc

5A at 60 hz is TOTALLY different than 5A at 3.9 mhz.

A piece of #20 gauge at 20 kHz will be 100.pct involved in the transmission of power.  Meaning, skin depth is 100 pct.

A piece of #12 is around 70 pct skin depth, frequency remaining the same.  We all know what happens to.skin depth as frequency is increased.

A piece of #20 may be small enough to start effecting bandwidth, as well as burning up with a '24 pill class e'.


--Shane
KD6VXI