BoatBanter.com - View Single Post - stainless steel foil instead of copper for grounding Ham radio?

Martin Baxter

wrote:

On Thu, 11 Oct 2007 09:48:49 -0400, Martin Baxter
wrote:

Evan Gatehouse wrote:

Never seen this discussed befo

Could I use thin stainless steel foil instead of copper foil in the
bilge as a ground for a long wire (backstay antenna) ham radio setup?

Evan Gatehouse

You may get some electrolysis where your copper ground connects to the
foil, if you have any water in the bilge and it's saline you certainly
will. You'll probably end up with a fairly high resistance (bad)
connection in short order.

Cheers
Marty

Higher resistance then the connection to the stainless back stay?

Only if your backstay spends long periods of time submerged, but then
you'll probably have other larger problems. ;-)

Cheers
Marty

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