15-09-2017, 10:23 AM
""Is the thickness of the conductor used for the aerial important from a reception point of view.
I have 1mm² tinned multistrand PVC wire and I have 5mm² solid copper PVC insulated cable""
1mm CSA tinned copper wire versus 5mm CSA copper wire, no contest, the 5mm copper is the best to use, think of the skin effect and then the skin depth then the resistivity of copper compared to the resistivity of tin which is approx. 7 times that of copper, skin depth for copper at 1Mz is approx. 65um, skin depth for tin is approx. 1.7um, that means the bulk of the current sloshing around in the tinned copper antenna at 1Mz will be sloshing around in the tin layer which has 7 times the resistivity of copper and if the wire is only 1mm CSA then the CSA of the skin depth is small just to compound matters.
Using a larger diameter conductor for the antenna will increase the antennas capacitance which will increase the effective height of the vertical portion of the antenna and therefore reduce the value of the inductive reactance needed to tune the antenna if you happen to be going down that route, reduced inductance means reduced losses, with antenna systems you need to reduce losses at every point if possible otherwise you can end up with one big loss, current is current voltage is voltage, power is power, losses are losses, whether transmitting or receiving.
Lawrence.
I have 1mm² tinned multistrand PVC wire and I have 5mm² solid copper PVC insulated cable""
1mm CSA tinned copper wire versus 5mm CSA copper wire, no contest, the 5mm copper is the best to use, think of the skin effect and then the skin depth then the resistivity of copper compared to the resistivity of tin which is approx. 7 times that of copper, skin depth for copper at 1Mz is approx. 65um, skin depth for tin is approx. 1.7um, that means the bulk of the current sloshing around in the tinned copper antenna at 1Mz will be sloshing around in the tin layer which has 7 times the resistivity of copper and if the wire is only 1mm CSA then the CSA of the skin depth is small just to compound matters.
Using a larger diameter conductor for the antenna will increase the antennas capacitance which will increase the effective height of the vertical portion of the antenna and therefore reduce the value of the inductive reactance needed to tune the antenna if you happen to be going down that route, reduced inductance means reduced losses, with antenna systems you need to reduce losses at every point if possible otherwise you can end up with one big loss, current is current voltage is voltage, power is power, losses are losses, whether transmitting or receiving.
Lawrence.
