No ! It definitely cleans and shines the anternna so objective is achieved.
Regarding possible destructive action , can you point to a study
that shows measurable losses with respect to exposure time ?
I am assuming that you are refering to cases where a sizeable portion of the
aluminum surface is removed and replaced by steel which somehow
prevent skin depth from attaining its original depth. ( not what the normal
operator had in mind)
But if you are refering to corrosion of the embedded steel particles
'tiny bits' that would be a nye impossible loss to measure and thus would
take it's place as "an old wives tale"
( Unless you have a study that proves otherwise
such as a .01" lump of steel embedded in a 1" diameter tube
provides a measureable loss )

Art

"Roy Lewallen" wrote in message
...
Keyboard In The Wilderness wrote:

Advice from several gurus as garnered from the news groups over time.

For cleaning aluminum tubing, an antenna guru recommends the use of #0
steel
wool, along with dishwashing detergent. . .

I've read that using steel wool will result in tiny pieces of the steel
being left embedded in the aluminum, resulting in long term pitting and
corrosion. Is that an old wives' tale, then?

Roy Lewallen, W7EL