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[J_M]

I'm hoping some of the more knowledgeable users will see this and be able to comment.

I was recently installing some flat foil type speaker wire to power satellite speakers for my surround system. This product can be mudded over and sanded becoming completely invisible - a great solution when fishing down the wall is not possible or impractical.

 

Once I had the product on the wall it occurred to me that it was looking a lot like a big antenna  and wondered if this type of copper foil wire would be usable to increase antenna range. Can anyone offer me any insight? If this product would be suitable would there be any length guidelines I should be allowing for?

Any help would be appreciated.

[Brandt]

I have some of this, and I don't know about an antenna, but it could be used as a glass break sensor with a DS10a

[J_M]

I think it may be too thick for glass break tape. I have some old copper glass break tape and it seems to be much thinner. The speaker wire is much more robust and might just remain intact while holding the broken glass pieces together.

Thanks for the suggestion though.

[dave w]

I'm hoping some of the more knowledgeable users will see this and be able to comment.

Once I had the product on the wall it occurred to me that it was looking a lot like a big antenna  and wondered if this type of copper foil wire would be usable to increase antenna range.

You might be able to use it as a "passive radiator" (a.k.a. "passive repeater") for a DS10, or Slim Line Switch or a xxxxEye motion detector. Search "passive radiator" on the forum. Length would be 18 inches. Neat idea you have as it could be painted same color as wall. Unfortunately it would be hard to adapt the the antenna mod for the CM15A

[J_M]

Thanks for the info Dave. I did a 'quick and dirty' test with the product on an SS13A. I simply stuck an 18" strip of one conductor to the left side back (twisting it so the balance could be taped to the wall). I can now reach devices more than triple the physical distance away through 2 walls and the floor.

The future looks very bright for my X10 system  - my XTB-IIR is enroute (thanks Jeff - awesome service ) and this passive repeater mod should take care of the rest of my issues without lowering the WAF.

[dave w]

Thanks for the info Dave. I did a 'quick and dirty' test with the product on an SS13A. I simply stuck an 18" strip of one conductor to the left side back (twisting it so the balance could be taped to the wall). I can now reach devices more than triple the physical distance away through 2 walls and the floor.

WOHOO! (again the blind pig finds a truffle!)
Considering all my passive radiators are rusty coat hangers scotch taped to the wall, I should get some of the ribbon wire for incremental boots of WAF. Thanks for posting the experiments results.