X-Virus-Scanned: clean according to Sophos on Logan.com X-SpamCatcher-Score: 30 [X] Return-Path: Sender: To: lml@lancaironline.net Date: Tue, 06 Mar 2007 15:01:25 -0500 Message-ID: X-Original-Return-Path: Received: from global.delionsden.com ([66.150.29.112] verified) by logan.com (CommuniGate Pro SMTP 5.1.7) with ESMTPS id 1905445 for lml@lancaironline.net; Tue, 06 Mar 2007 14:55:57 -0500 Received-SPF: none receiver=logan.com; client-ip=66.150.29.112; envelope-from=n103md@yahoo.com Received: from bmackey by global.delionsden.com with local (Exim 4.62) (envelope-from ) id 1HOfka-0000pT-9t for lml@lancaironline.net; Tue, 06 Mar 2007 14:55:08 -0500 Received: from 12.146.139.19 ([12.146.139.19]) (SquirrelMail authenticated user bmackey) by www.bmackey.com with HTTP; Tue, 6 Mar 2007 11:55:08 -0800 (PST) X-Original-Message-ID: <56201.12.146.139.19.1173210908.squirrel@www.bmackey.com> X-Original-Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2007 11:55:08 -0800 (PST) Subject: Re: [LML] Ground-plane From: "bob mackey" X-Original-To: lml@lancaironline.net User-Agent: SquirrelMail/1.4.8 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Importance: Normal X-AntiAbuse: This header was added to track abuse, please include it with any abuse report X-AntiAbuse: Primary Hostname - global.delionsden.com X-AntiAbuse: Original Domain - lancaironline.net X-AntiAbuse: Originator/Caller UID/GID - [32015 2012] / [47 12] X-AntiAbuse: Sender Address Domain - yahoo.com X-Source: X-Source-Args: X-Source-Dir: > Actually silver has the highest conductivity of all metals, which is > probably why it's used to plate the center conductor of some coax cable; > RG142B for example. This is true, but it is not the whole story. Conductance is very important in antenna elements. But another factor is the intermetallic and oxide at contacts. If the behavior at the contacts is not strictly ohmic (meaning that there is a linear relationship between current and voltage), then intermodulation (IM) distortion is created. By changing a nice smooth sine wave into something more like a square wave, higher frequencies are created. This type of distortion degrades transmitter and receiver effectiveness, and also generates frequencies that radiate from the connectors and infest other parts... like my fuel computer for example. The oxides and sulfides of silver are much more ohmic than the oxide of nickel. Nickel-plated BNC connectors look nice and shiny, but they cause much more IM distortion than their silver-plated brethren. More here... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermodulation_distortion