Copper versus jacketed?

[oneirish]

I've been running a 65' bare copper wire connected to a WiNRADiO WR-LWA-0130 Long Wire Adapter
( http://www.winradio.com/home/lwa.htm ) and then to coax coming inside for about a year. Originally intended as a temporary HF solution but it worked so well I left it up.
Now of course the wire is brown with oxidation (?) and the many air pollutants here in LA. Yet I still pick up most stations I did before with the exception of hearing east coast like HF-GCS very often from KADW.

I took it down to clean the balun up and have another 65' of bare copper but should I go buy jacketed wire instead before putting it back up?

How much does the weathering of the bare wire affect performance over time?

I also have a PAR EndFedZ up and they both perform about the same except the 65' wire is slightly better on weaker signals and around 10 MHz.

 

[Thayne]

As long as there is no oxidation where you make your connections there is no difference. (Soldered would be excellent)

 

[oneirish]

Thanks!

I just put the new one up and all soldered with a soldered clip onto the balun. Working great. Thanks!

 

[kb2vxa]

What you may not know is the more copper weathers (to a point) the better it's protected FROM weather. That point is at least 10-15 years down the road when the green oxide patina forms, then it's nearly bulletproof. You've probably seen power lines, copper roofs, sheathing, leaders and gutters up for more that 50 years all a lovely green yet having no signs of deterioration and never given it a second thought... until now.

 

[jonny290]

If you do end up using insulated wire, a good rule of thumb is to shorten the wire by about 3-5% to account for the velocity factor. You can pretty much disregard it in most casual situations.


But yeah, bare old copper is good stuff

 

[oneirish]

Well then...

Now I wish I had just left the old wire up. It was already a year into the green oxide patina...
In fact I've been thinking the new copper doesn't seem to perform as well as the old one did, despite being identical.

And I have just been learning about velocity factor - good to know! Thanks!