I never said that: A second measurement was then made after wetting the line with water to simulate what might happen in a typical outdoor application. Initially the water tended to bead up and run off, making it difficult to make meaningful measurements. I believe that a typical line used outdoors would quickly lose its water shedding ability as it degrades from sunlight and accumulates dust and other pollutants. To simulate this, I added a wetting agent to the water to create a water film on the surface. The results of this are probably worst case and not something that would necessarily be encountered in a typical installation...
As an aside, my late friend, Danny, K6MHE, sent me a piece of window line* that had been used on one of his dipoles suspended in the redwood trees in Ft. Bragg, CA. It had moss growing on it. This would not be a problem at my QTH in the Sonoran Desert, especially considering that I would never use the stuff.
* I now prefer the term window line over ladder line, since the latter is used for both true open wire and polyethylene insulated line.
On 7/19/2025 10:11 PM, Jack Brindle via Elecraft wrote:
There is no discussion about the effects of that wetting agent other than a (questionable) general assumption that it had no effects.
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