[TowerTalk] Copper clad telephone wire

[Kevin Kidd]

You are absolutely correct.  Cutting copper clad wire with shears "smears"
the copper down the steel.

Cut it normally and then take a file or fine grinding wheel and grind it
down flat.  You should see a very clear demarcation between the copper and
steel.

We use some copper clad in broadcast grounding and have had people often
think that it was solid due to the "smearing".

On another note...  Unless the copper is very, very, very thin (as in a
plating), it won't make any measurable difference at HF how thick the
copper is since most RF travels on the surface within the first few skin
depths.  A skin depth at HF frequencies is just a couple thousandths of an
inch depending on freq.  The copper clad (CopperWeld) that we use has
several skin depths of copper even at AM Broadcast frequencies.

Good luck,

On Fri, Aug 8, 2014 at 4:11 PM, Dave Hachadorian <k6ll.dave at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Maybe when you cut it, the copper mashed down so you couldn't see the
> steel core.  Try scraping off the copper with a knife. Measure the diameter
> before and after with a micrometer or even a machinist's ruler.




Kevin C. Kidd, CSRE/AMD
AM Ground Systems Company  -  WD4RAT
kkidd at kkbc.com  --  866-22-RADIO -- 866-227-2346
www.amgroundsystems.com