N9EN wrote:
> There will be NO steel wool
> residue if you rinse the tubing thoroughly after you are
> done with the cleaning.
> I have tried many grades of steel wool and many other
> types of abrasive, including 3M's Scotchbrite. Nothing
> seems to work (for me) as well as #0 steel wool, along
> with dishwashing detergent and water. The Scotchbrite
> tends to scratch the aluminum, instead of giving it a nice
> polished look. The same is true for the coarser grades of
> steel wool.
>
I wasn't worried about cosmetics - simply the functional aspect. To each
his own.
Also, using Scotch-brite requires no washing of the elements - hard to do
outside in the winter.
> By the way, I NEVER attempt to clean the outer aluminum
> shells of antenna traps.
> There are a couple of reasons why I don't clean the
> outsides of the trap tubes. The first one is that my antenna
> traps are not in a "bad" enough condition to warrant the
> disassembly of them. The second reason is that I don't
> want to risk getting any of the steel wool particles inside
> the traps, and possibly causing short circuits.
Again, one would only think about cleaning trap tubes if one were concerned
with "looks". And you make a perfect argument in favor of the Scotch-brite.
> The antenna has been up for about 5 years now and it
> still looks almost like a new antenna. When the sun shines
> on it, the elements still gleam and the antenna still performs
> just as good as it did when I first put it up.
>
If you can see the gleam on your antennas, they aren't up high enough. ;-)
Mike N2MG
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