Dear Group Member,
I have a question regrading the importance of silver
plating inductor wire in high power TX circuits in the HF
bands.
I am just rebuilding my antenna tuner ahead of the 160m
ARRL contest. The tuner configuration is a T with two
inductors forming the horizontal arms with the variable
capacitor in the vertical arm (i.e. between the junction
of the two inductors and GND). The inductors use 3 mm
diameter bare solid copper wire (good quality copper),
with a solenoid diamater of 3" and length of 6". Each
inductor is tapped for inductances of between 4uH and 33
uH. Conductor spacing is 1:1.
Would silver plating the conductors make a practical
difference? There is no significant heating of the
conductors now with full legal power.
I have done some rough math on the difference in
resistance, taking into consideration the skin effect at
1.8 and 3.5 MHz, but there only seems to be an 8%
difference between pure copper and silver plated wire. Am
I missing something and should I replace the copper with
sliver plated wire?
TKS for your thoughts,
George
AA7JV
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