Re: [IRCA] Cable work

["Craig Healy" <bubba@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> > Oddly, it's called "poultry wire".
>
> If it's the stuff I am thinking it is, about 1/4 inch squares openings,
steel
> wire woven together and dipped in molten zinc, they call it "hardware
cloth"
> out here.
>
> I've used it a few times years ago when I needed a wide fat ground
connector
> from a radio shelf to a metal plate on a concrete floor. I was having RFI
> issues and the setup took care of the feedback.

Nope.  Around here the 1/4" stuff is called rat wire.  Used to keep out,
well, rats.  You probably could force a rat through it, but it would be a
strain...  The stiffness of that would make it hard to handle.  You'd really
need to nail it down to keep in place.  The "poultry wire" is much more
malleable.

This is thin wire with 1" hexagonal hole mesh.  Maybe 24GA steel galvanized
wire.   A fifty foot roll weighs a few pounds.  Very thin screening.
However, it will conduct well enough to provide a decent enough shielding.
A better shield would be regular copper window screening.  Too expensive to
buy that for a mere test.  They do make an aluminum window screening.  If
the chicken wire does show an improvement, maybe that's the next step,
buying a roll of aluminum screen.

I may have some time Monday morning.  If the weather is OK, I can do that
test.  I'm curious to see the results.  If it works, then twenty bucks work
of chicken wire is a whole lot cheaper than some of these other
possibilities.  We shall see..

I wish I could find a good RF to fiber optic modulator and companion
demodulator.  That would be quite interesting and make all this coax work
moot.  I would think that RF through a fiber system would keep a pretty good
phase stability, too.  Maybe that would be a project for down the road.
Make a combination RF preamp and fiber optic modulator.  Then make a
companion demodulator and amp so there is a selectable gain through the
system.  Talk about lightning protection!  No need for any grounds on the
antenna feed.

Craig Healy
Providence, RI

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