[Amps] copper vs steel /SS /brass conductors in a HF tank circuit

[Gary Schafer]

You should try your tests at higher frequencies, say 10 meters. At 160
meters current penetration is deeper and will probably be deeper than any
plating. Even copper clad wire used as antenna wire is questionable on the
low bands for the same reason.

73
Gary  K4FMX

> -----Original Message-----
> From: amps-bounces at contesting.com [mailto:amps-bounces at contesting.com]
> On Behalf Of GEORGE WALLNER
> Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2011 9:47 AM
> To: amps at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [Amps] copper vs steel /SS /brass conductors in a HF tank
> circuit
> 
> On Tue, 22 Mar 2011 13:06:04 -0700
>   "John Lyles" <jtml at losalamos.com> wrote:
> > I'm pleased that Rob specified "in a HF tank circuit"
> >for his comment "they are so nearly the same that copper
> >strap is good enough; silver just looks pretty and
> >impresses people."
> 
> Although for practical purposes on HF this is mostly true,
> there is a difference. Copper oxide is an insulator while
> silver oxide is a conductor. As the copper oxidizes, the
> skin current encounters increased resistance and moves
> deeper into the copper. At HF the difference will be very
> small.
> 
> I have tested both bare copper and silver plated
> inductors, trying to measure the difference in Q, and with
> high RF currents (10 - 12A at 1.8 MHz) trying to measure
> the heating difference. I could never tell between the
> two. I have also tried to see if the Q of tarnished copper
> inductors was lower, but again, the differences were not
> measurable with my set-up. Still, I prefer silver plated
> inductors. It must be the looks. (I have also tested
> powdered-iron-core inductors. Even with silver plated wire
> they had lower Q-s (200 - 250) and heated up
> considerably.)
> 
> 73, George, AA7JV
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