stainless steel foil instead of copper for grounding Ham radio?
 

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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stainless steel foil instead of copper for grounding Ham radio?
 

On Fri, 12 Oct 2007 09:51:03 -0400, Martin Baxter
wrote:

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

------------ And now a word from our sponsor ----------------------
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To obtain capacitance coupling to the ocean the plate has only to be
below the external water line and I have not seen too many boats with
bilge water that high.

Further if the plate is only acting as the ground plane in an antenna
system then to avoid electrolyses the RF ground should be connected to
the plate through high voltage capacitors thus no DC current on the
plate.

If connections are made with proper tin plated wire and terminals
there is no reason that corrosion should be any more a problem then
with any other electrical systems mounted below the cabin sole.



Bruce in Bangkok
(brucepaigeATgmailDOTcom)

stainless steel foil instead of copper for grounding Ham radio?
 

In article ,
wrote:

To obtain capacitance coupling to the ocean the plate has only to be
below the external water line and I have not seen too many boats with
bilge water that high.

Further if the plate is only acting as the ground plane in an antenna
system then to avoid electrolyses the RF ground should be connected to
the plate through high voltage capacitors thus no DC current on the
plate.

If connections are made with proper tin plated wire and terminals
there is no reason that corrosion should be any more a problem then
with any other electrical systems mounted below the cabin sole.



Bruce in Bangkok
(brucepaigeATgmailDOTcom)

If the "Plate" is to used to be one side of a Capacative Coupling
for the RF Grounding of an MF/HF Antenna System, then your "Best
Solution" is to use a material with the Lowest Resistance, Highest
Surface Area, encase it in the Thinest Dielectric Insulating
Film available, and mount it as close as possible to the SeaWater.
No High Voltage Capacitor, required, as the Dielectric Film will
be the DC Current Insulator.

Bruce in alaska
--
add path before @

stainless steel foil instead of copper for grounding Ham radio?
 

Bruce in Alaska wrote in news:fast-
:

If the "Plate" is to used to be one side of a Capacative
Coupling
for the RF Grounding of an MF/HF Antenna System, then your
"Best
Solution" is to use a material with the Lowest Resistance,
Highest
Surface Area, encase it in the Thinest Dielectric Insulating
Film available, and mount it as close as possible to the
SeaWater.
No High Voltage Capacitor, required, as the Dielectric Film
will
be the DC Current Insulator.



Next time you're at sea and bored to tears, connect 100' of
plastic covered wire to the ground post on your tuner, sealed up
on the open end, if you like. The plastic is the "thin
dielectric film" in Bruce's eloquent description. It keeps the
water from eating the wire. Toss it overboard and let it trail
out in the ocean behind the boat, but DON'T FORGET TO REEL IT IN
BEFORE YOU ENTER HARBOR!

There, now you have a great "ocean RF ground" without rummaging
around down in the bilgewater and rats.

Try it before and after with someone at a distance you know and
see how much difference he sees in your signal "out there". It
makes about 5 S-units on Lionheart. Works great, cheap, easy to
deploy and retrieve, not to mention fun.

Oh, before I stop, I wanna mention:

DON'T PUT ANY SHINY CAN TOP AS A DRAG CHUTE LITTLE SEA ANCHOR TO
HOLD IT OUT TIGHT! "Something BIG!" ate my cat food tin can! It
also ate about 35' off the end of my wire! Musta been a WHOPPER!

"They", whoever "they" are, can't grab just the open-ended wire.

Larry
--
Maybe "they" were attracted to my melodious LSB on 75 meters!

stainless steel foil instead of copper for grounding Ham radio?
 

On Sat, 13 Oct 2007 01:48:48 +0000, Larry wrote:

DON'T PUT ANY SHINY CAN TOP AS A DRAG CHUTE LITTLE SEA ANCHOR TO
HOLD IT OUT TIGHT! "Something BIG!" ate my cat food tin can! It
also ate about 35' off the end of my wire! Musta been a WHOPPER!

"They", whoever "they" are, can't grab just the open-ended wire.

Ships used to dangle a long line with a spinner on the end from the
stern of a boat or ship. It was attached to a mechanical counter. This
was called a taffrail log. [The one you threw was a chip log.]
Sometimes fish would disappear the spinner. I am surprised how seldom
it seems to have happened.

Casady

stainless steel foil instead of copper for grounding Ham radio?
 

On Thu, 11 Oct 2007 07:13:46 -0700, Joe
wrote:

And BTW
tarnished silver is the best, even better than gold.

The tarnish doesn't do anything good. On a relative scale, silver is
250, copper 225, as is gold. Aluminum is 175. Stainless is about like
lead, 6 or 8. Plain carbon steel is 25. Thermal conductivity is
closely correlated with electrical conductativity for what that is
worth. Better at one is generally better at the other.

Casady

stainless steel foil instead of copper for grounding Ham radio?
 

On Oct 13, 7:27 am, (Richard Casady)
wrote:
On Thu, 11 Oct 2007 07:13:46 -0700, Joe
wrote:

And BTW
tarnished silver is the best, even better than gold.

The tarnish doesn't do anything good. On a relative scale, silver is
250, copper 225, as is gold. Aluminum is 175. Stainless is about like
lead, 6 or 8. Plain carbon steel is 25. Thermal conductivity is
closely correlated with electrical conductativity for what that is
worth. Better at one is generally better at the other.

Casady

Richard...I'm telling you one of the worlds top antenna designers
lives here and I just happened to be lucky enough to get his help
setting up my radios. If he tells me tarnished silver is the best for
HF I take his word for it..If our goverment flys him all over the
earth to design develope and set up the best....that's good enough
reference for me.

Joe

stainless steel foil instead of copper for grounding Ham radio?
 

On Sat, 13 Oct 2007 12:27:03 GMT, (Richard
Casady) wrote:

On Thu, 11 Oct 2007 07:13:46 -0700, Joe
wrote:

And BTW
tarnished silver is the best, even better than gold.

The tarnish doesn't do anything good. On a relative scale, silver is
250, copper 225, as is gold. Aluminum is 175. Stainless is about like
lead, 6 or 8. Plain carbon steel is 25. Thermal conductivity is
closely correlated with electrical conductativity for what that is
worth. Better at one is generally better at the other.

Casady


I have silver at 0.0159 microhm meter at 20 degC
copper 0.0168 microhm.meter
gold 0.022 microhm meter

So gold may not be not quite as conductive as the best, but it STAYS
at that value - no tarnish....

Brian W

stainless steel foil instead of copper for grounding Ham radio?
 

stainless steel foil instead of copper for grounding Ham radio?