I have another take on this, Dave. Copper wire is still the most
conductive and it can be soldered. The aluminum wire around a
stainless or zinc plated screw will eventually become cathodic and
cause noise. Even in dry environments, the difference in the thermal
coefficient of expansion and contraction of the two materials will
cause the contact to loosen.
There is tons of surplus copper wire on Ebay for really cheap. Some
of mine is jacketed, some is formvar-coated transformer wire, but
none of that matters. I am in the process of putting down 60 radials
(7,200') under a new full-size 160 vertical. I also found metal tent
stakes on eBay to use at the end of each radial.
Think I have two of the aluminum plates for this purpose (without the
screws) that I will never use. Anyone who wants them can have them
for the postage.
>Message: 1
>Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 14:32:21 +0000
>From: "K1TTT" <K1TTT@ARRL.NET>
>Subject: [CQ-Contest] newest bestest radial material ever!
>To: "YCCC" <yccc@yccc.org>, "reflector -tower"
> <towertalk@contesting.com>, "reflector cq-contest"
> <CQ-Contest@Contesting.COM>
>Message-ID: <003301c7e0db$6cc1fa60$0800a8c0@k1tttibm>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
>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
>
>
>
>******************************************
Tom Taormina, K5RC
Virginia City Nevada USA
NACHO - W7RN RANN - K7RC
Web Site: http://k5rc.cc/ FOC 1760
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