Greetings,
This wire was a barn find. It ws coiled up in the rafters for storage
many years ago by an in-law.
My guess is that it was up there for 40+ years.
I just checked and the wire I have is not magnetic. I even checked using
one of those super magnets.
The wire core looks reddish brown, and is distinct from the shiney copper
shell or margins.
For grins I ran to Home Depot and the solid #4/#6 wire they sell there
looks the same, similar structure including the colored core.
Of course the sales guy knows nothing (and I really wouldn't expect him
too).
I guess I got some specification digging to do. I have about a 50' coil.
Maybe the best thing to do is just get new copper stranded wire so I know
what I have and put this stuff back in the barn.
Thanks again to all for the comments, pictures, links, and diagnostic
suggestions.
73 Mike K9MK
-----Original Message-----
From: TowerTalk [mailto:towertalk-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of
jimlux
Sent: Friday, May 17, 2019 1:39 PM
To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Solid Tower Ground Wires
On 5/17/19 8:39 AM, Mike & Becca Krzystyniak wrote:
Greetings,
As I install my new tower, I was dropping some ground rods next to the
base and acquired some #6 solid copper wire to make the connections (or so
I
thought).
When I went to cut the wire I found out that it had a hard core, most
likely steel.
Sounds like copper clad steel (aka Copperweld)..
How much did you pay for the wire (per pound) compared to the price of
copper? (about $2/lb today) That will give you a hint, 100ft is about 8
pounds, so you'd expect it to be at least $16. Home Depot is selling 50
ft of AWG 6 for $37 (which is pretty expensive) or 500 ft for $237 ($6/lb)
I'm not sure this is plated as the outer copper ring is a substantial
portion of the cross section.
40% copperclad steel would have a moderately layer of copper AWG 6 is
0.162" in diameter and 1 ohm/1000 ft.
AWG 10 solid wire is 1 ohm/1000 ft and is 0.1" in diameter
So the cross sectional area of the copper for 40% CCS should be about
the same as for AWG 10 - it works out to cladding thickness of about 17
mils (out of 162 mil diameter) - so that's pretty thin..
Is that what it looks like?
As I'm not familiar with the applicatio of this type of wire I wonder
if
it is acceptable for the grounding connection between the tower and the
ground rod?
Thoughts or comments please.
Thank you.
Mike K9MK
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk