I expect that most of the offending nickel at VHF/UHF sites is nickel plating on less expensive connectors where it is used in place of more expensive silver alloys.
Ch;arlie, K4OTV -----Original Message----- From: Topband [mailto:topband-boun...@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Charlie Cunningham Sent: Sunday, January 26, 2014 4:20 PM To: 'Richard Karlquist'; topband@contesting.com Subject: Re: Topband: Conductivity of stainless steel hardware The primary additive in stainless steel is chromium - not nickel. There are some stainless steels that do not contain nickel at all and there are non-magnetic stainless steels. Another common additive is molybdenum. Charlie, K4OTV -----Original Message----- From: Topband [mailto:topband-boun...@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Richard Karlquist Sent: Sunday, January 26, 2014 3:44 PM To: topband@contesting.com Subject: Re: Topband: Conductivity of stainless steel hardware On 2014-01-26 06:54, Charles Stackhouse wrote: > A very tech savvy friend (microwaves, public safety radio) says this > is no good. Due to the poor conductivity of stainless steel, RF > connections should not be through > Charlie, W2GN If your friend was really savvy about public safety radio, he would know that repeater sites ban any connectors containing magnetic metals such as nickel, which is used in stainless steel. This is because they cause "passive intermodulation" PIM, producing cross talk between radios at the site. Probably not a concern for HF ham radio, but a big deal if you want to put a ham repeater at a commercial site. Rick N6RK _________________ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband _________________ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband _________________ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband