Topband: Silver Plated Conductor

[Tom Rauch]

> It also prevents oxidation of the copper, but I'm not sure 
> how
> significant an improvement this will be in terms of Q.
>
> Joe VO1NA


Surface corrosion or tarnish, unless it really eats away the 
conductor surface, has little effect.

As  was pointed out the skin depth of silver on 160 is about 
.0018 inches and even a very heavy plate won't significantly 
change conductivity or Q. As the material is more resistive 
on the surface the maximum current will just move a very 
tiny bit deeper into better material.

Tin plating, silver plating, mild tarnish or oxidation of 
copper....it generally won't mean much until you get above 
20 or 30 MHz or unless the plating is a pressure connection 
point.

People generally plate HF coils because they want stuff to 
look better. It's called radio bling bling now.

73 Tom