Wire Prices

[KM1H]

#14 solid copper insulated in those 500' rolls from your favorite local big box store makes great radial wire.

Maybe if you are only using 4 of them.  Ive been using #18 for decades and the more the merrier to share the current.

Carl
KM1H

[k4kyv]

In 1974 I bought 16,000 ft. of #12 bare soft drawn copper wire for my radial system for $400.

That was during an economic downturn, and I kept watching copper prices until I thought they had bottomed out.  A friend of mine's dad owned a wire factory, where they bought the bare wire in bulk and added insulation, fabricating Romex and single strand house wiring.  He sold me the bare wire by the pound at his cost.  The price of copper seems to pretty well track the state of the economy.

My friend told me that his father always thought I must be totally nuts when he found out that I was planning to bury the entire contents of those spools of wire in the ground.

For my antennas I use #8 or #10 bare copperweld.  Years ago I was given a lifetime supply of the stuff, in addition to what I had already grabbed off the side of the train tracks while they were taking down some of the old open wire telegraph lines.

[K5UJ]

My friend told me that his father always thought I must be totally nuts when he found out that I was planning to bury the entire contents of those spools of wire in the ground.

I sometimes imagine what would happen if I sold my house and left the radials.  I picture the new owners trying to dig a hole in the back yard, gradually finding the whole lot blanketed with buried copper wire and wondering what kind of crazy nut used to live here.

[k4kyv]

It would be a shame to waste a good radial ground system.  But also a lot of work to pull up the wire.  I doubt that even when copper prices were high, many copper thieves would go after a buried radial system unless it had been recently laid.  I have inadvertently left scraps of wire lying on the ground, and when I would discover it a couple of years later, it would be almost impossible to pull up out of the sod.

[KM1H]

Bare copper disappears pretty fast in some soils as many BCB stations are finding out during a proof of performance test.

Thats one of the reasons the FCC authorized elevated radials per several requests.

Carl
KM1H

[K5UJ]

Bare copper disappears pretty fast in some soils as many BCB stations are finding out during a proof of performance test.

Thats one of the reasons the FCC authorized elevated radials per several requests.

That's interesting.  I've heard of that problem with aluminum radials.  There have been a few attempts at saving money, one at WOR at one time according to what I've heard, where substituting aluminum for copper turned out to be a bad idea for the reason you gave.  Any idea what regions have the anti-copper soil?  Thanks,

Rob / K5UJ

[KM1H]

Im not a chemist or metallurgist but would guess any acidic or alkaline soil would react with copper. The further away from a neutral PH the more the reaction.

With WOR and many others built on salt marshes the process would be accelerated.

Ive opposite conditions, Im pretty much on granite and elevated radials are superior to on ground for me.

Carl
KM1H

[k4kyv]

The soil in New England is reported to be notorious for corroding away copper radials.  Here, they tend to suffer little damage.  I seem to recall that acidic soil is bad on copper and that alkaline is bad on aluminium, but I would have to review my chemistry before I would say for sure.

I believe copper is used extensively for boat and ship hardware.  It must be one of the more durable metals in a salty environment.

Back in the days of open wire telephone and telegraph lines, steel wire was used for most telephone service.  However, the telegraph lines along train tracks used copperweld, because the corrosive effect of the sulphur content in the coal smoke from steam locomotives caused solid steel to rust away very quickly.  My antennas are made from some of that wire.

I have heard stories that in Puerto Rico some AMBC stations have gone to using galvanised barbed wire, which lasts a long time in their soil, to avoid copper theft.

[Ed/KB1HYS]

I think the resistance to corrosion for copper is based on having a coating of copper oxide that seals the metal away from the environment. There are some 100+ yr old buildings in town here,and they have copper roofing flashing, green as grass but still sitting up there.  It'll last for ever or  until some copper thief gets over his fear of hieghts.

Some one was talking about those buildings and remarked how nice they would look if they would polish the copper up...