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

Larry Benko xxw0qe at comcast.net
Thu Mar 24 14:17:40 PDT 2011


  This is total BS!

Electrical conductivities:

Copper ~1.7x10-8 ohm-m
Silver ~1.6x10-8 ohm-m
Silver Sulfide ~1.8x10-3 ohm-m
Silver Oxide ~1x10+9 ohm-m

If you wish to call something that has 62,500,000,000,000,000 times 
higher resistance than silver a conductor then so be it. I would prefer 
to call silver oxide a CRAPPY conductor.

While we are on the topic there are 2 oxides of copper and a commonly 
occurring sulfide when copper weathers.  I made some coil measurements a 
few years ago and saw no difference in Q's.  Take a look at 
http://www.w0qe.com/inductor_Q_tests.html for all the details.  Click on 
the picture of the inductors would with extremely weathered old copper 
wire for a higher resolution image.

73,
Larry, W0QE


On 3/24/2011 7:47 AM, GEORGE WALLNER wrote:
> 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.


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