Topband: Conductivity of stainless steel hardware

[Charlie Cunningham]

The primary additive in stainless steel is chromium - not nickel. There are
some stainless steels that do not contain nickel at all and there are
non-magnetic stainless steels. Another common additive is molybdenum. 

Charlie, K4OTV

-----Original Message-----
From: Topband [mailto:topband-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Richard
Karlquist
Sent: Sunday, January 26, 2014 3:44 PM
To: topband at contesting.com
Subject: Re: Topband: Conductivity of stainless steel hardware

On 2014-01-26 06:54, Charles Stackhouse wrote:

> 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

> Charlie, W2GN

If your friend was really savvy about public safety radio, he would know
that repeater sites ban any connectors containing magnetic metals such as
nickel, which is used in stainless steel.
This is because they cause "passive intermodulation" PIM, producing cross
talk between radios at the site.  Probably not a concern for HF ham radio,
but a big deal if you want to put a ham repeater at a commercial site.

Rick N6RK
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