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Old February 17th 09, 08:56 PM posted to rec.radio.amateur.antenna
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Default Soldered copper connections exposed to elements

My homebrew open wire line has spacers held on by soldered tie wires
every foot. So, in the 90 foot rise, a lot of tie wires. I used copper
wire and 60/40 solder.

While the copper wire has certainly acquired a greenish patina over
the years, if I inspect the soldered connections they have flaky white-
gray stuff on the outside. It seems to be pretty soft and if I scratch
at it I can see shiny solder underneath.

The green on the copper is copper carbonate, I suppose. The whitish
stuff on the solder joints is maybe lead carbonate, lead acetate, lead
sulfide, maybe tin something?

Is the chemical reaction progressive, or does the coating on the
outside stop further reactions from going on in the joint?

Any lessons I should learn about protecting outdoors soldered joints?
The environment is pretty benign, just hot summers, cold winters,
occasional ice storms, no sal****er air.

Tim N3QE
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Old February 18th 09, 04:28 AM posted to rec.radio.amateur.antenna
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Default Soldered copper connections exposed to elements

"Tim Shoppa" wrote in message
...
My homebrew open wire line has spacers held on by soldered tie
wires every foot. So, in the 90 foot rise, a lot of tie wires. I
used copper wire and 60/40 solder.

While the copper wire has certainly acquired a greenish patina
over the years, if I inspect the soldered connections they have
flaky white-gray stuff on the outside. It seems to be pretty soft
and if I scratch at it I can see shiny solder underneath.

The green on the copper is copper carbonate, I suppose. The
whitish stuff on the solder joints is maybe lead carbonate, lead
acetate, lead sulfide, maybe tin something?


Mostly carbonates and oxides, I would think. The solubility in
water is low but is greatly increased by dissolved carbon dioxide.
Wash your hands well before consuming food if you get the corrosion
products on you.

Is the chemical reaction progressive, or does the coating on the
outside stop further reactions from going on in the joint?


Yes the reaction is progressive. The surface coatings will slow the
reaction but not stop it. According to one of my sources, lead/tin
solder is slightly anodic with respect to copper meaning that the
solder will be corroded away protecting the copper. Another
source says the reverse is true. However lead, tin, their alloys,
and copper are all close to each other in the galvanic series.

The only hard data I have is for 50/50 solder and copper in flowing
seawater, and your application is a far milder environment. The
potential difference is between 0.01 and 0.03 volts which is quite
low. Because of this, I expect your transmission line will last
quite a long while.

Any lessons I should learn about protecting outdoors soldered
joints? The environment is pretty benign, just hot summers, cold
winters, occasional ice storms, no sal****er air.


I would avoid soldering to galvanized or cadmium plated steel. But
to connect to an aluminum alloy antenna you may have to use zinc
plated terminals between the copper and the aluminum. In this case,
I would clean the solder flux off the connection and then liberally
paint the connection with a good outdoor paint. Acrylic paints will
weather the best here.

The worst thing in your vicinity for corrosion is acid rain.
Waterproofing the connections will help protect against this.

--
73, Dr. Barry L. Ornitz WA4VZQ

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