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From: "Ashlock,William" <William.Ashlock@edwards.boc.com>
To: rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org
Subject: LF: RE: litz wire
Date: Tue, 14 May 2002 12:34:05 -0400
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Mal and LF group,
 
Thanks for all the comments on how to strip the Litz wire. I'm continuing to
experiment and last night I placed a sample of the wire in my paint stripper
for an overnight test. This morning the color had changed from a red to a
typical bare copper color, but a check of the conductivity indicated there
is still some insulation remaining. It's back in the stripper at the moment
for another dose. My conclusion is that this stripper is too weak to handle
the job. Typical of most dangerous products on the market these days, it's
probably been 'watered down'. 
 
Mal, I'll check the ingredients tonight and see if Methylene dichloride is
one of them. Thanks for this. 
 
BTW, with all due respect, I don't buy your: "3mm litz wire is marginally
better than normal 2.5mm stranded insulated wire the advantage is small", if
you are talking TX loops (which may not have been the case).  My TX loop
measurements indicate the Litz would be 2.4x lower in Rac, separate from the
soil loss, which runs 0.22 ohms (dry) on my 50'/50' loops. I should have a
complete table of many TX loop conductor configurations with Rac totals,
including soil loss from <0.40 (4xlitz) to 1.4 (single #12), completed in
about a week.
 
Bill A

 
Hello Bill and all
 
To remove the enamel from litz wire I use paint stripper called nitromorse. 
Remove all the cotton/plastic insulation from the cable end to be soldered
to expose the multi strand enameled wires. Brush the end of cable with a
tooth brush to separate the strands and flatten out.
Use the tooth brush to apply the paint stripper to the splayed out cable
strands, making sure it gets to all the strands. Leave for about 10 minutes
or more, then brush away the disolved enamel. I carry out this process twice
to ensure that all enamel has been removed. The final job is to wash the
exposed copper cable  end with turps etc using a cloth, then start
soldering. I strip back about 1 inch of the cable end.
I have used the above procedure a number of times and it works well. Paint
stripper and a tooth brush are readily available. This method is also
economical on solder, no need for special tools like solder pots and bunsen
burners.
Any good paint stripper would do. My contents label says the stripper
contains 5 - 20 percent
Methylene dichloride, it does not say what the rest is.
This is dangerous stuff to get on skin, eyes etc and brush away from you so
that it does not flick into your eyes or skin.
The container/can specifies what precautions are nessary for use.
I find although 3mm litz wire is marginally better than normal 2.5mm
stranded insulated wire the advantage is small compared to the effort
required to solder and weight considerations, especially for large loops or
horizontal wire antennas. I also have noticed since winding my 0.5 mH
loading coil for the vertical with 3 mm litz wire it is more critical to
keep on the nose at resonance, possibly because of the higher Q than the
previous 2.5 mm multi strand insulated copper wire.
I hope these observations help you.
My current 90 metre perimiter loop uses 2.5 mm insulated wire. I use it for
RX only and as said previously I have to throttle the RF gain back on even
the very weak signals. I do not use any preamps only the RX or Level meter
SPM 12. I cannot see any advantage using litz for this purpose.
To use the loop on TX there would be an advantage using litz but probably
the db gain would hardly be noticeable. 
Very small loops on LF like 1 metre square etc might be a different story,
but this does not apply in my case.
 
73 de Mal/G3KEV
  
 
 

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