Re: [amsat-bb] Corroded antennas

[Douglas Cole <n7bfs@xxxxxxxxx>]

Bruce Nolte wrote:
> 
> Aluminum oxide is a nearly perfect insulator, in fact it is the dielectric in
> electrolytic capacitors, and all aluminum acquires a thin coating of it soon
> after the metal is worked. In fact the oxide film is so strong it usually
> prevents further oxidation of the aluminum. That being said, I would suspect
> that if your connections to everything are sound, that the oxide film would
> have no more effect than a coat of paint, since current does not flow through
> the film at all. That being said, I would suspect that heavy powdery oxidation
> of aluminum  caused by salt water exposure could cause problems in a couple of
> ways:


snip!!


In my profesional experience I have noticed that almost all of our
microwave dishes use painted over brass for the driven elements ,
aluminum is no-where to be seen , and again , everything even the dishes
are painted over , so of course no corrosion .......

and most of the dishes are not aluminum and boy are they heavy !


makes me want to paint my .5 meter aluminum dish that I am going to be
using for ao-40 ......

anywho just some input from the funny farm ;^}



-- 
Douglas Cole   N7BFS
AMSAT#26182 , K2 # 544
http://www.users.qwest.net/~cdoug3
Registered Linux user # 188922
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