Simple, cheap, fast way to make open wire feed line

[Thomas Liebert]

I've discovered a simple, cheap, and fast way to make open wire feed line.

You need the following:

1) Bare copper wire (I got 100' of 14 gauge from KN1JLK (thanks, Kevin!))
2) 1/4" polyethylene tubing. Lowe's has 25' for $2.96:
http://www.lowes.com/pd_15275-104-SPEB25_0__?productId=3130913&Ntt=polyethylene+tubing
(note their website says it's 20', but it's actually 25')
3) A bag of 8" cable ties. Lowe's has a bag of 100 for $4.95:
http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay?partNumber=76328-1781-46-104UVB
I found bags of 100 at Big Lots for $2.50.

Cut the polyethylene tubing into short spacers (I made mine 2" long).
It's really easy to cut; I put it on a cutting board and used a big
kitchen butcher knife.
You can speed it up by first cutting a bunch of 12" pieces, then
cutting them in parallel to get the 2" spacers (kind of like cutting
the ends off a dozen
roses before putting them into water.)

Once you have a bunch of spacers, repeat the following: Pass a cable
tie through a spacer, around one wire, back through the spacer,
around the other wire, through the "ratchet", then tighten as hard as
you can with pliers. Clip the excess "tail" with a pair of dikes.

Spread the spacers out along the wire...seems like every 8" or so
works well. If you cinched down the cable tie tightly it should stay
put, but if you're worried you can put a dab of glue on one or both
sides of the spacer to keep it in place.

That's it!

If anybody knows a cheaper or faster way to make open-wire feedline,
I'd sure love to hear about it. (OBTW, I found the basic idea in a
YouTube video, but
that fellow used plastic pen bodies for spacers. My innovation is to
use 1/4" polyethylene tubing instead.)
--
73 de Tom NV1T

(603) 812-6777 Cell
506 Sherburne Road
Portsmouth, NH 03801
Lat/lon: 43.0652 -70.8059 Maidenhead grid: FN43ob

[AI2Q]

Yup. I've seen this done, Tom. Poking the cable ties makes it fast and cheap
and, well ------ effective!

I prefer my traditional approach, but maybe that's just 'cuz I'm partial to
aesthetics. HI HI.

Vy 73, AI2Q, Alex