Not exactly aluminum wire, but...
A while back I had a conversation with Copperweld regarding their
"aluminum-weld wire". It is a steel wire coated with an aluminum jacket.
I was told that it would not last much longer than a "couple of years" in
contact, or buried in the ground. The problem was not the aluminium, but
the dissimilar junction that occurs everywhere the aluminum jacket gets
nicked or broken thru. These will turn to dust in short order.
For raised radials, no problem. Another reason to use raised radials.
On the other hand, there is not a similar problem with copperweld. That
product will last many years in the ground.
Copperweld wire is cheap if ordered from the factory. The downside is the
minimum order size...about 1000 lbs. Then there is trucking, and what to do
with the spool once it arrives.
Jim, W1EQO
w1eqo@shaysnet.com
Original Message:
-----------------
From: Les Kalmus w2lk@earthlink.net
Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 12:24:07 -0400
To: yccc@yccc.org, towertalk@contesting.com, CQ-Contest@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [YCCC] [TowerTalk] newest bestest radial material ever!
Any thoughts on how this stuff will survive on the ground?
Les W2LK
Richard (Rick) Karlquist wrote:
> Last year I bought some aluminum wire in coils like you describe. I
> think it was a company
> in Ohio and may very well have been Malinco. Anyway, they had a 50 lb
> minimum and charged
> something like $3 and change per pound. This is way cheaper than
> McMaster. I wholeheartedly
> agree that alloy 1100 is the hot setup. BTW, did you know it also is
> the most corrosion resistant?
> The stuff I got was annealed to practically wet noodle consistency :-).
> Wonderful to work with.
>
> Rick N6RK
>
>
>
> K1TTT wrote:
>
>> I just found the newest bestest radial material I have ever used! And
over
>> the years I have used a lot of them. It ain't cheap, but at this point
in
>> the 80m 4-square project that doesn't much matter any more.
>>
>> It is Alloy 1100 Aluminum Wire .125" Diameter(just under 8ga), 12-lb
Coil,
>> 792' Coil, McMaster-Carr part number 8866k15. They sell it for $150 and
its
>> enough for 12 radials for 80m. it comes with a tag from www.malinco.com,
>> they don't seem to have an on-line order system so probably only deal in
big
>> quantities.
>>
>> If you want something a bit cheaper they have 2016' coils of .080 (about
>> 12ga) for $146.
>>
>> This stuff comes in a coil, which kind of worried me a bit until I cut
off
>> the tie wraps and it just sat there... no spring to it at all. It is
easy
>> to cut with small wire cutters, and easy to hand wrap around bolts and
>> itself to make eyes. It can also be uncoiled and doesn't get kinked, you
>> don't have to roll it out like Copperweld or other stiffer wires. I
found
>> it easiest to just stick the coil over one arm and uncoil it as I walked
>> from vertical to vertical to connect them up.
>>
>> Btw, even with just the radials connected around the square this new
>> 4-square is MUCH better than the old hanging around a tower. I can take
an
>> s9+ ve3 and make them disappear off the back.
>>
>> David Robbins K1TTT
>> e-mail: mailto:k1ttt@arrl.net
>> web: http://www.k1ttt.net
>> AR-Cluster node: 145.69MHz or telnet://dxc.k1ttt.net
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> TowerTalk mailing list
>> TowerTalk@contesting.com
>> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
>
>
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>
>
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