ICANHAZWINDOWFEEDTHROUGH! While deeply pondering how, in the absence of a box brake, to get those copper sheets folded exactly to fit the window, it suddenly dawned on me: Why not let the window shape the copper? Now I cant do that with a solid sheet, because about anything thick enough to be useful is too thick to bend without risking breaking window panes and such. BUT THERE IS ANOTHER WAY! Copper braids can be very thin and very flexible and still carry quite a lot of current. This train of thought led to a careful consideration of where I seen copper braid. Ive used fine braid to wick solder when Ive been unsoldering, but that stuff tends to be a very small braid of very fine wire. Theres a braided copper shield around good coax, but good coax costs money and the shield braid tends to sorta disintegrate without the center conductor and dielectric supporting it. Ponder. Ponder. Ponder. Hot darn, I know where Ive seen copper braid! Some cars have braided ground straps between the engine and the chassis, the chassis and the hood, and various other places. This triggered a furious round of calling every auto parts store along the Central Coast. One store had one. They didnt know where it was, but their inventory system said it was there, somewhere. So I went. We searched. We searched more. We checked behind the toilet in the employee washroom. We checked everywhere. Eventually we found it. The employee washroom thing was directionally correct. So I came home with it. The Anderson windows neatly bend it into shape as they close. And the window doesnt shear the braid, and the braid doesnt open up a gap to the weather. So Im in business. Im ordering more from Amazon, because somehow it feels safer to also feed the counterpoise out of the house and away from the pets, rather than just running it along the baseboards and giving any passing pet a good jolt whenever I key the transmitter. After the widgets arrive from Amazon, I may finally finish the antenna and get on the air. :) smile.amazon/gp/product/B0016HNYHW/
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 04:08:56 +0000
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