[IRCA] Antenna wire

[Mark Pettifor <mark@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Greetings and a happy new year to all!

I have some antenna wire that a DXing friend of mine (Chuck Mitchell, 
WB9NWF, from Carmel IN, S.K.) got ahold of back in the 80s. It's STILL 
working well, and I've not found a better wire, and over time the longer 
pieces keep getting used and reused and shortened, and I'd like to 
acquire more just like it, if I can. After decades of use, the markings 
on the insulation have faded away, so I don't know the manufacturer, 
type, gauge, etc. I have a link to some pics I took and was wondering if 
anyone could help with figuring out what exactly kind of wire it is, and 
where I might find some like it.

The wire is either 18 or 20 gauge, and is of type "overcoated" stranded. 
That is, there are 7 bare copper conductors, probably around 30 gauge, 
wrapped together with a slight twist (6 around a center 7th), and they 
are "tinned" with some kind of overcoating to make it appear like a 
single conductor. The first two links show what it looks like:

spacetubes.com/IMAG0072.jpg
spacetubes.com/IMAG0074.jpg

I cut a piece of it off the end, and it came apart, and you can see the 
solid bare copper wires inside, and also the coating (made of an unknown 
material, but it's a lot like some kind of solder) in this photo:

spacetubes.com/IMAG0078.jpg.

Note that this is NOT the same as coated copper wire which is then 
stranded together.

The insulation is most likely PVC(?), as it is still pliable and not all 
brittle and cracked, even after being outdoors for years and years.

Any ideas what kind of wire it is? Or does anyone know where I could 
send a sample for analysis, to find out the exact type it is, so I can 
order the same kind?

Wire is wire, eh? Well, I can't explain it, but there's just something 
about this wire's electrical properties that makes it perform better 
than any other wire I've used.

Thanks for any help or direction!

Best regards,

Mark Pettifor
Goshen, IN
KC9DOC
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