Cheap POS longwire
 

Having only a 10m antenna up, I decided to do some experimenting for antennas for HF. I didn't have any parts to make a typical dipole. What I did have was an old POS 50 ft extention cord with the ends cut off. I stripped the orange jacket off, seperated the 3 conductors, spliced two of them together giving me 100 ft of wire. One end is connected to my tuner which is capable of tuning a random length wire, from there it goes out the window of my second floor shackm and slopes down to the back yard.

At the moment it is only in a temp setup until I have time to work out something better. But I can't complain about it's performance.

any wire is an antenna. good for you for trying.. and the only shortcoming of POS wire is it tends to stretch with time and heat.
you can make a dipole by using any insulator in the center.

cut up old computer firbeglass cases, throw away printer covers etc.
plastic windows in printers.
buy a sheet of 1/4 inch plexy at ACE or home depot.
or 1/8 inch plexy and hot glue two or three pieces together.

a good trick is to use several 'black' zip ties to hold a short piece of
1/8 in rubber auto hose to the center insulator and tape to the lead as a strain relief...

other wise the lead will break on one side and antenna acts funny and a dipole cant be checked with an ohm meter like a closed loop beam can sometimes.
use pulleys on the ends so you can raise and lower two dozen times to get it right.

have fun.