[TowerTalk] Heat tape for relays

[Jim Lux]

I doubt you need much power here, what about a resistor with a suitable value for whatever voltage so that it dissipates, say, 1/4W.  If you're feeding 12VAC, 560 ohms is pretty close to a quarter watt.  1k is 144 mW.

A more interesting question is why are you seeing the stickiness.  It's not like relays have a lubricant that gets stiffer with cold.  And usually, coil resistance goes DOWN with lower temp, so the current goes up and so does the flux. Maybe the return spring gets stiffer (if it gets cold enough, it could conceivably get brittle?)

On Sat, 8 Mar 2025 13:32:18 -0700, Patrick Barkey <n9rvee at gmail.com> wrote:

I have a lot of relays in this station, and many are outdoors (in
enclosures). Over the last few years it has become apparent that the
occasional super cold nights are making some of them flakey. They stick --
if I go out with a hairdryer I can free them up.

These are enclosed relays.

I am wondering if anyone has ever tried using heat tape for this kind of
application? I could just flip it on when I needed it. Most heat tape I
see is for water pipes and is 6 feet long or so. I could try to use this,
but what I really need is something smaller and possibly flatter.

Any ideas? Thanks.

- Pat
N9RV
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