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Re: [CQ-Contest] oxidized inner conductor when coax carries DC power

To: Franki ON5ZO <on5zo@telenet.be>
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] oxidized inner conductor when coax carries DC power
From: George Harlem <george.harlem@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 1 Nov 2016 10:17:16 -0400
List-post: <cq-contest@contesting.com">mailto:cq-contest@contesting.com>
H2O molecules are pretty small. I'm told that copper oxide eventually turns 
from green to black. I use Coax Seal, but it can be nasty to remove-- at least 
it seems to do its intended job. 

George W1EBI

From George's iPhone

> On Oct 31, 2016, at 6:51 AM, Franki ON5ZO <on5zo@telenet.be> wrote:
> 
> Probably not the appropriate forum but there ought to be a technically 
> skilled ham here? Sorry that this post isn’t about cheating and what defines 
> ‘assistance’. Some contesters have real issues though.
> 
> A few weeks ago I was doing some relocating and rerouting of the coaxes 
> outside. One RG-213 is used for my active RX loop. It needed a different plug 
> on the antenna switching side so I cut the existing one off and prepared the 
> cable for a new one. Much to my surprise I found the inner conductor black 
> from corrosion. I cut off a few centimeters at a time, but after having cut 
> off two meters, it still was black. I have been working with these things for 
> ages and I can tell you: it is NOT water ingress. Everything is sealed 
> properly. I was a pain to solder the new plug to the center conductor. I had 
> to sand the black film off and even then the tin wouldn’t flow.
> 
> Last week I took the loop down and cut away the layers of tape that kept the 
> feed point coax dry. And dry it was. However I noticed the N male-female 
> junction had a green mush developed around the mating pins of the inner 
> conductors.
> 
> I didn’t pay attention in chemistry class, but I’d label this as corrosion. 
> Right?
> Since I have never seen this before, and this is the only coax that ever 
> carried DC around here, I assume the DC voltage is the culprit here?
> 
> * Can I avoid this?
> * Does it hurt? I seem to remember something about DC and polarity that can 
> eat your copper away?
> * My coax shields are tied to a dedicated earth system. Does this relate to 
> the corrosion in a good or bad way?
> 
> I’m thinking of ways to improve my 80/160 RX situation, and several scenarios 
> involve DC over the coax. So I better know what I’m up against.
> Thanks and 73
> Franki ON5ZO / OQ5M
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