| Does anyone have any suggestions for cleaning exposed copper wire from
pine sap, acid rain, and soot? My dipole succumbed to a major tree limb
this winter and I need to resolder the center connections. However, the
wire is quite dirty from the aforementioned grime. What to do?
In the past, I have used lemon juice (mild acid), ammonia, sandpaper
(several grades), heat and flame from a torch, and nothing worked. The
sandpaper did the best job by exposing some shiny metal, but the solder
really did not want to take because of the contamination all around.
I also have cut the wire before, but this does not really help because
the wire is still dirty all around the surface of the wire. BTW, it is
stranded 14 guage copper. If I need to cut some wire, this is ok since
the antenna is cut for 3.55 MHz and I have wire to spare!
Does anyone have any suggestions for cleaning copper wire so I can
resolder and get back on the air? Thanks to all.
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| Use tobasco sauce, then clean the wire and apply a good tinning agent.
You can get these at the local hardware store. Ihave used plumbing
solder without flux, and purchased the flux in a little tube I also
braded some wire around the break before I soldered to add strength.
Brasso also works well to clean the wire.
Joe N6FIC
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