[Amps] High Voltage Wire

[Manfred Mornhinweg]

When I need some high voltage wire, I look into my box of coax cable scraps. I 
always find something suitable. Humble RG-59 is rated for 2300V rms, that's over 
3.2kV DC. In many cases that's enough. And this is just its safe rating - the 
actual breakdown voltage is far higher than that.

Since I'm a born and proud cheapskate, or in more modern terminology a good 
recycler, I select some scrap of old RG-59 that looks very worn or dirty, take 
it apart, discard the worn jacket, use the center conductor with its insulation 
for the HV run, and I'm left with a bonus piece of braid, which can be used for 
low impedance connections, or to suck up some solder.

Thicker varieties of coax cables of course are rated for higher voltages, enough 
to satisfy those of you who run 4 or 5kV. And almost every ham who builds 
equipment has ugly-looking scraps of that stuff lying around, which are fine 
internally.

Manfred


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