[TowerTalk] Penetrox/Noalox vs. Anti-seize compound

[Gavin J. Roberts]

Hello, all:


I spent a good part of this last weekend assembling a Mosley 4 element beam from new.  Mosley supplies a small quantity of Penetrox with the antenna and encourages its liberal application during assembly.  I exhausted the limited amount supplied and wanted to finish putting things together, so I headed for the local hardware store which carried an anti-seize compound called Permatex.  As far as I know, this compound does not contain any particles to promote conductivity between the joints, but rather is more of a petroleum jelly based lubricant.  Realizing this fact after finishing assembly, I ordered some additional Penetrox this morning from DX Engineering (they carry both Penetrox as well as Permatex).  When I asked their technical support staff whether it would be wise to re-do the" Permatex-ed" joints with Penetrox before raising the beam, he seemed to feel that it would not be worth the trouble to substitute a more conductive material for the less conductive one.  His reasoning was that enough bare aluminum-to-aluminum surface area would remain that the use of the Permatex was very unlikely to negatively effect antenna performance.  Anyone have an opinion on this?  Should I re-do the joints in question while the antenna is still on the ground?  Or would this be a needless exercise at this point?


Thanks and 73 de


Gavin W9YE