[TowerTalk] remote tuner Vs lumped constants

[Jim Lux]

On 7/24/13 8:59 PM, K8RI wrote:
> On 7/24/2013 11:34 PM, Gene Fuller wrote:
>> I don't understand the problem with copperweld.  I have three 160 meter
>> quarterwave slopers and three 80 meter bent vertical dipoles using
>> alumoweld that have been up about 40 years with no problems. As I recall
>> it is 20% aluminum.
>> Gene / W2LU
>>
>
> What I had appeared to just be copper plated steel. It was listed as
> CopperWeld. Whether it was the real stuff?
>
> I see the definition as "hard drawn Copper welded to a steel core"
>
>

There's several flavors of this clad steel wire..
Copperweld is a tradename for one mfr. http://fushicopperweld.com/
(history is here http://fushicopperweld.com/en/about/history.html)

There's many flavors of clad wire..
There's copper clad steel (CCS) which is what is traditional for 
antennas and rural powerlines, but there's also aluminum over steel 
(used for power lines) and copper over aluminum.

The cladding thickness varies.  You'll see 21%, 30%, and 40% IACS 
(conductivity relative to a pure copper wire of the same diameter)

For 10AWG diameter (0.1019") the cladding is
21% IACS 0.0776 mm
30% IACS,0.1812 mm
40% IACS,0.2588 mm

Skin depth at 10 MHz in copper is 0.021 mm, so even 21% IACS CCS has 
more than 3 skin depths..
Go down to 80m where skin depth is more like 0.035mm, and you might want 
to consider one of the othes.