Wire gauge, Ultralight SOTA, and Compromises
I recently took it upon myself to see just how small and light I could get my portable radio kit. Basing the kit around the lovely QRP Labs QMX (don't have enough nice things to say about that both as a radio and as a kit), I went to work. One of the things I knew I could improve upon was the antenna size. Despite my love of large loops and other balanced antennas, I'm partial to end-fed wires for portability. The K6ARK style coax-less EFHW is an easy choice for POTA and SOTA packing, but the smallest wire gauge I had used for one was 20. I made a couple in 26 gauge, and they seemed to hold up fine, so next was 30.
Feeling particularly over-confident, I drove to my favorite POTA spot about 30 minutes from home with my shiny new 30 gauge half-wave (only 20 grams). Immediately after stringing it up in a tree, the wire snapped. When reeling in the now flacid wire, it broke again. Twice. It seems the tensile strength of 30 gauge stranded copper wire is less than what is necessary to suspend it in a tree. The 26 gauge options seemed to work just fine on the other hand, but only time will tell. I suspect the point of weight vs durability is right in that 24 to 28 gauge region, though.
The proverbial "wet string" will stay 26 gauge for now, and the hilariously named "BNTECHGO" brand of silicone wire sold on Amazon seems to suit my needs nicely. If I were backpacking the appalachian trail or something, and HF radio was a lower priority for me, I could totally see maximizing the weight savings in return for some worsened rugedness. Me? Through hiking? Mountaineering? In this economy? Yeah 26 gauge will do fine.
Until next time. Dit dit.