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Re: [TowerTalk] There's 'ground', and then there's 'ground'

To: <garyschafer@comcast.net>, "Frank Donovan" <donovanf@erols.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] There's 'ground', and then there's 'ground'
From: "Jim Lux" <jimlux@earthlink.net>
Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2005 10:54:08 -0800
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
>
> As to using braid for grounding, there is nothing wrong with it if it is
> not corroded and it is indoors. Outside it will corrode and the
> resistance/ inductance will increase. And worse, when it is corroded you
> can't clean it properly to make a new connection when it needs to be
> repaired.
> When it corrodes you loose the connection between wires and it becomes a
> series of crooked individual wires which have a longer length than the
> sum when everything is shorted to the next.

This gets back to "proper installation".  Aluminum cables are used outdoors
in all sorts of applications without problems, over very long time spans
(think HV electrical transmission lines...) with very good reliability and
minimal maintenance.  Aluminum (at least if you choose the right alloys)
doesn't corrode all that much, once the protective oxide layer forms.  Yes,
repair and/or rework presents some problems, and aluminum cables are
probably not a good solution for something which is changing on a week to
week or year to year basis.  Hopefully, though, one is not changing your
lightning protection system that often.


>
> For high frequency RF braid may not be the best. But it is regularly
> used in rf gaskets in many applications.

As an RF gasket, you're applying the current across the braid, so the
conductive path is very short. And, EMI/EMC gasketing is very much an art...



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