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Re: Aluminum magnet wire?

Hi Ed,

At 04:43 PM 09/17/1999 -0700, you wrote:
snip....

>Somewhat difficult to establish a good
>connection in low-voltage service, but that would be no problem in a
>Hi-Z circuit like a TC.  Note that almost all HF antennas are made from
>aluminum, and all are much lower impedance than that of a TC secondary. 
>They are much more affected by RF resistance than any TC.
>
>Ed
>

Of course, you hit it right on the head here!  The high impedance
caracteristics of the secondary system make aluminum wire losses
trivial....  If the resistance was high enough to cause a hot spot, there
may be a concern.  The RMS current in my secondary is around 400mA.  So a 6
ohm resistance would dissipate about a watt.  Of course, given that the
secondary is driving a few hundered kV, if there was a large resistance
spot, the current would just "take to the air" around it....

I think the aluminum secondary will work just fine given the few cautions I
posted before.  I hope it gets built.  There are a number of theoretical
points it would confirm.  If it does not work, we will all be VERY
interested in what possibly could have gone wrong!!

Cheers,
	
	Terry
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