At 12:44 7/11/99 -0400, Caston/Payne wrote: >From: Caston/Payne <happycampers@picusnet.com> > >I'm going to replace the ground connectors on the left head next week and >was wondering if any particular brand was better than another for this >application? Should I look for copper or will aluminum sufice?

You certainly want copper (or brass, but you probably won't find any brass ring terminals, just the push-on ones). As far as I know there is no such thing as an aluminum crimp connector. The matte-silver ones are tin-plated which is good. If you should run across a shiny-silver one it might be chrome-plated, which is bad IMO. I would tend to stick with 3M if you don't feel up to judging quality yourself.

> Will the >types found at the local FLAPS be ok?

Yes, subject to the above.

>With regard to the ground strap on the left head:would like to replace that >as well. What gauge wire and any special temp for the sheathing to look for?

Hate to say it, but you should use tin-plated (or tinned) copper braid, just like the original. I can make you up one for a few bucks if necessary. They used braid 1) because it's very flexible for the (equivalent) size of wire -- ordinary 8-gauge stranded wire could very well break in time and 2) because of a property of radio waves, they tend to travel only on the surface of a conductor. The braid has a very large outer surface compared to equivalent wire, which makes it much superior as an RF ground. Side note: it's the outer surface of the braid that counts, not of each individual strand. There's some really fancy (and tedious) stuff called Litz wire which is a braided wire with each individual strand enameled to insulate it from all the rest which tricks the RF into traveling on the surface of each strand instead of the whole wire, but this is just tinned braid.

david David Beierl - dbeierl@ibm.net