I was looking for a low profile, easy to hide antenna wire. The common answers are bare copper clad steel, insulated 12awg, and the like. I, of course, am alergic to spending anything I don't have to, and after a while the real answers add up dollar wise.




I have no idea how I stumbled on the idea, but it came to me that fishing line is light weight, thin, and designed for exposure to the elements. "But AB," you might say. "Fishing Line is PLASTIC, and is not compatible with the free flow of electrons and the channeling of RF radiation." To this I would reply "Yes, you are correct - in general, but not specifically now. I found some made of copper."

Its tiny, strong enough to hold itself up, and cheap enough even for me to experiment with.

Here are three dipoles for 15m, 20m, and 40m that pack into the space of a small Far Side desktop calendar. For a size approximation, the large silver rings are small split ring keychains. Two of them use the smallest split bolt wire clamps I could find at HomeDepot. Please note that they are still about 8 times too big and require a 12-10awg insert to take up the extra space.









And the important parts - plastic wire thimbles and double barrel copper crimps to create the stress relief loops and unstressed 6" feed section. Not shown is a 18awg crimp ring on the end of the 6" feed section. When I've decided what I want the final product to look like, I may change those out for color coded power poles.









In case anyone is curious about doing this themselves, here are the parts I used. Note, you can go really cheap (half the cost) and even lighter if you use 30lb test fishing line. I chose 45lb test for my experiment to reduce my chances of breaking it.

600ft 45lb test braided copper fishing line, $47




Plastic wire thimbles for stress relief




Copper double barrel copper crimps for the 45lb wire





So, yes. I can actually say I've made HF contacts using fishing line as an antenna.






 

Indeed.    I have some of this on the master plan for portable use.   I won't have it for my trip back to Oregon next week but after that I plan on really getting it coming.

This is coming together soo slowly in the midst of a ton of other things going on.   I wish I could afford to retire so I'd have more time for the fun stuff.   Heck I'd settle for just working 8 hours a day.

How many watts have you run thru these fishing wire antennas ?

I have caught 25lb salmon on lake ontario with copper line so it is pretty strong. Brilliant idea on using it for antennas.

I've run 100w AM SSB through it with no observed issues.

Overall, its just shy of 1mm thick, so I would compare it to, what... 16awg?

Dumb question: why not just roll up a bunch on a clothes line or chalk line reel and carry a single, adjustable antenna instead of carrying multiple antennas?

 
That was my original plan. I even picked up a homebrew for $5 at a hamfest. My plan was to remove the (apparent) .mil phone wire from the spools and put this on.


I decided to test the line first with a simple pre-cut dipole. Then I cut another. Then another. You know how it goes some days.


One thing I noticed on the camp clothesline spools was the sharp edge on the hook you use to keep the line from unwinding any further. I have it in the back of my head to come up with a less-sharp binding post before I change out the coated mil wire for this softer braided copper.

I set up with some DeWalt chalkline reels.   The crank handle flips down into one of two holes in the body so there is a stop every half turn.    No need to wrap the wire around anything to hold it.    These are what I plan to eventually load with the fishing line.

How much wire is spooled in/out with each half rotation?

Does the body have a convenient connection point for the suspension rope?