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« on: June 21, 2025, 0642 UTC »
I use whatever is the cheapest, but I like 16 gauge insulated doorbell wire for permanent listening antennas. It's cheap and you can buy at any hardware store. W/ the insulation left on it holds up well.
When I was pirating, a lot of these old guys on this forum heard me when I was using nothing more than a dipole made from 100 ft. of speaker wire split into 33 ft. legs through a PVC pipe cap. The rest was the feedline. It fed into a small tuner and I powered w/ one of the Radio Animal's Grenade transmitters. A mighty 14 watts of AM carrier heard from Canada to Florida! I hit Europe a couple of times with it. Launched into trees in the sticks w/ a wrist rocket slingshot via a one oz. egg shaped fishing sinker connected to 60 lb. test mono fishing line from an old bait casting reel and powered by a 12 volt gel-cell battery. I may hold some sort of record for being the cheapest long running pirate station ever to take the air? Rarely QSL'ed as stamps cost money, damn it! The Dood's buddy, Fearless Fred and I used to call Wal-Mart, "The One Stop Pirate Shop." Those split speaker wire dipoles lasted about 10-12 Tx's in the field, until the feedline got too twisted to use. Spend a buck for another 100 ft. build another and do it again.
I used the balls of used speaker wire antennas for BOG's and homemade loops for listening up and down the radio spectrum. Made makeshift TV antenna's of it. Never throw wire away. It's the radio listeners, ham, and pirates bread and butter and boon companion. Good luck!