Yes, that was a sad issue.
And, in fact, it didn’t make the cover. The photo on the cover was of a
different ladder line - and more interesting looking.
Makes you wonder what the alternate “less technical” magazine would be like
;>)
Think this may be my last year with ARRL.
73 Craig AC0DS
> On 24, Feb2020, at 5:36 PM, Edward Mccann via TowerTalk
> <towertalk@contesting.com> wrote:
>
> The QST article was woefully short on technical detail, in my opinion, and I
> couldn’t believe it made the cover. There is little technology being
> addressed in the magazine.
>
> Sad state of affairs.
>
> Ed McCann
> AG6CX
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On Feb 24, 2020, at 5:46 AM, Rob Atkinson <ranchorobbo@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I have a few problems with this wire. My experience with aluminum is
>> that it is not worth the trouble integrating it into the rest of the
>> antenna system when it comes to bonding it to other metals. I
>> appreciate the light weight and lower cost but aluminum has another
>> undesirable property: It cold flows so clamps on it eventually come
>> loose and then you have resistance and heat. This is why aluminum
>> house wire which was tried in the 1960s came to a quick end--too many
>> cold flows, heat and fires. I hope it isn't coming back for that
>> purpose.
>>
>> I have my 200 amp service drop to my home using aluminum. I don't
>> like it but I can't make the power company use copper. Every few
>> years I check the lugs on the main breaker to make sure they are still
>> tight. This is one area where an IR camera would come in handy. It
>> WILL cold flow eventually and you'll know it when your lights flicker
>> or dim briefly when a big load like A/C comes on.
>>
>> I was dismayed to see that QST ran an article by some sort of RF
>> expert on how to construct open wire feedline using aluminum AWG 8 or
>> maybe it was 6, stranded wire. Ridiculous overkill for ham power, and
>> he spliced line sections together using what appeared to be steel
>> clamps. Those clamps will lose their grip in a few years and he'll
>> have problems, besides the use of steel for RF. None of this came up
>> in the article. Then there was the line Z due to the spacing and
>> diameter of AWG 8 cable but that's outside the focus here.
>>
>> 73
>> Rob
>> K5UJ
>> _______________________________________________
>>
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