The (inappropriately named) Pacific coast where Danny lives has
fair-sized waves almost constantly, particularly in the winter. When
they break along the shore, a very fine mist of salt water droplets is
created, and those drift for a long distance. In the winter, the
prevailing wind direction is from the west, so the salt water mist is
blown farther yet. The result is that the air itself contains a
suspension of salt water. Aluminum corrodes fairly quickly, and good
sized bare copper wire turns into a blue powder in a year or less. Where
I live, in the Willamette valley of Oregon which is about 70 miles
inland, it rains pretty constantly from about October through June --
not an extraordinary amount, but everything outside stays wet for the
whole winter because of the lack of direct sunshine and the frequent
rain. But aluminum lasts forever and so does copper, which only gets a
thin, dark oxide coating. It's the salt water suspension that's the
killer on the coast.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

Dan Richardson wrote:
On Sun, 10 Apr 2005 23:58:12 -0400, Mike Coslo
wrote:



How close to the ocean are you? It sounds like you are right in the spray!



About a half mile. I live in the northern California "Mendocino"
coast. We have a lot of rain too and that combination is a killer for
aluminum exposed to the elements.

Danny