[TowerTalk] Aluminum Fence wire for elevated radials

[Jim Lux]

At 03:55 PM 3/22/2005, Neal Campbell wrote:
>I know that the bulk fence wire you can buy at the local farm supply will
>disappear if you have very acidic soil, etc. when used for ground radials.
>Does anyone know why this wire would not be usable for elevated radials?


Resistivity?  You might want to go through the equations in the various 
articles and see if the tradeoff of length vs # of radials, etc. varies if 
the wire is more resistive.

In general, since aluminum is so much cheaper than copper, you can probably 
make up for the lower resistivity by just running twice as many 
radials.   But heck, you might not even need that.

There is also the problem of making good durable connections to aluminum 
wire.  For an electric fence, it's one thing, but if you're expecting it to 
carry significant RF current, it's another.


>73 de Neal k3nc
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