Ray, Good question. I would like more information on this too. My meager understanding is that copper or silver plated copper strap is preferable for HF tank circuits. I took the liberty of changing
steel and s.s. are ferrous metals; they heat up with enough RF current. Too much R. OTOH if you look at conductive properties of silver and copper (undergraduate introductory physics book) they are s
I just checked with one of the fellows who has designed his share of high-power HF rigs and he says brass is the way to go. It is usually cadmium-plated to "keep it shiny looking." Apparently there a
I use silver solder to bond copper strap and tubing and then SS hardware just to add mechanical strength and mounting as needed. Silver plating is a complete waste of time and money below UHF unless
This is another one of those things that may vary according to power, duty cycle and tx time. IOW, 1.5 KW RTTY for 10 minutes --> problem. 800 w. SSB for a minute or two maybe not so bad. I like not
I'm pleased that Rob specified "in a HF tank circuit" for his comment "they are so nearly the same that copper strap is good enough; silver just looks pretty and impresses people." Silver does look p
All stainless steels are ferrous and I would think that they'd thus all be subject to RF heating. The 300 series alloys have, in general, a higher percentage of chromium and nickel and are not magnet
The addition of nickel changes the crystal structure from body center cubic to face centered cubic. That's why the 300 series are nonmagnetic and can not be heat treated. David KW4DH -- I bring reaso
Although for practical purposes on HF this is mostly true, there is a difference. Copper oxide is an insulator while silver oxide is a conductor. As the copper oxidizes, the skin current encounters i
You should try your tests at higher frequencies, say 10 meters. At 160 meters current penetration is deeper and will probably be deeper than any plating. Even copper clad wire used as antenna wire is
Do not confuse silver oxide with silver sulphate which is the black coating which appears over time and is the source of many intermittent connections. Properly sized and constructed toroids should n
Silver oxide is slightly conductive but not by very much. Depending upon where you live and what fuel you use to heat your house and cook with, the black tarnish on silver is more likely to be silver
This is total BS! Electrical conductivities: Copper ~1.7x10-8 ohm-m Silver ~1.6x10-8 ohm-m Silver Sulfide ~1.8x10-3 ohm-m Silver Oxide ~1x10+9 ohm-m If you wish to call something that has 62,500,000,