Microcoax SPC vs SPCW

Ask them for the spec sheet. They look like this but this is an example of copper where 3.4.1. specs the plating thicknesss of the silver:

Usually in micro-inches, so you guys would have to translate :-)

Forgot to mention, Monday is a holiday in the US (Labor Day)

No idea, but it might be better to go for solid copper - plated silver can have a much lower conductivity than solid silver of the same thickness, and a lower conductivity than solid copper (despite the fact that soild silver at 6.3E7, has a higher electrical conductivity than solid copper 5.96E7 ) and plated copper on steel may well be unespectedly lossy.

-- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

And as I found out when doing some cavity SRD power multipliers, there is one hell of a difference when you specify HARD silver plating rather than just silver plating. Something around a 30% efficiency loss between "regular" silver plating and hard silver plating.

Don't expect me to be able to tell you the chemical or process between the two, but there is a difference (and in price, too).

Jim

Why consider Cu plated steel, mechanical strength?

Solid silver wire isn't that expensive, and steel has awkward magnetic properties in context anyway.

Concur. Also consider that silver oxide is conductive, but none of the other metals' oxides are.

Well, I think it's important.

Mark L. Fergerson

It's one of the options that the manufacturers make and the stocking distributors sell.

You could try to get someone to make you a batch of co-ax with a solid silver centre wire, but you'd probably have to buy a great deal of cable to get any at all.

It isn't exactly evidence-based - you'd need a fairly precise neasuring system to see the differences, and those measurements that have been done do seem to suggest that silver-plating is a waste of time.

-- Bill Sloman, Nijmgen