Topband: Conductivity of stainless steel hardware

[George Dubovsky]

Hi Charlie,

This is one area where practice overrules theory. Yes, SS is not the
conductor that copper is, but it's not bad, and since you're posting on the
lowband forum, I presume you're interested in HF. At HF, and at less than
megawatt levels, the environmental virtues of stainless make it perfect for
the applications like yours. The nickel content in stainless is capable of
supporting intermod generation at high powers, but at very low levels, like
80-100 dB down from the signals. At HF, this is a non-issue, I think.

I build all of my beverage boxes and other small outdoor doodads using
10-32 stainless screws and stainless wingnuts and washers- works good,
lasts a long time.

73,

geo - n4ua



On Sun, Jan 26, 2014 at 9:54 AM, Charles Stackhouse
<cstack14478 at yahoo.com>wrote:

> I have been building antenna hardware such as transmitting chokes,
> Beverage transformers, etc. in various plastic boxes. The electrical
> connections have been to solder lugs fastened inside the boxes to stainless
> hardware. The actual antenna wires have been connected outside the boxes to
> the stainless hardware such as eyebolts or bolts with wingnuts.
>
> A very tech savvy friend (microwaves, public safety radio) says this is no
> good. Due to the poor
> conductivity of stainless steel, RF connections should not be through the
> hardware but through wires brought out of the boxes soldered directly to
> the antenna wires.
>
> I would appreciated the advice of this group.
>
> Charlie, W2GN
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