Greetings does anyone know the name of source of wire used in inner connection in RF Antenna matchbox. Looking to repair some Viking matchbox’s.. I just have not found a source for the plated wire

Thanks
Wd8axa

Copper Buss Wire. It is plated and sold in varies size's. I use it at my job, comes in 18" lengths . Here is a link, " https://www.awcwire.com/productspec.asp ... r-buss-bar ".

There is no meaningful benefit to plated (with what?) wire in a Viking Matchbox of which I have several. Plain old copper wire stripped from some common electrical household wire is just the same. If you must, coat it with solder for appearance. The famous Wanzer Z Match tuners used plain old 12 guage solid copper wire and work better than a Viking Matchbox for unbalanced loads like coax. The only advantage of the Vikings are for balanced loads.

Plating the copper wire actually increases the loss in the coil unless the plating is silver. Also, 18" lengths won't get you far and splices will also increase loss. Even Home Depot has bare copper wire in whatever length you want.

Are these the Miniductor type coils? I have heard that MFJ sells those but I haven't looked myself; it could be old news and they are now discontinued but worth a shot if that is what you need..

I want to restore the matchbox to original physical condition.
The copper wire looks like the **deleted** I’m trying to undo , I didn’t think it would be hard to find as just about every antenna tuner uses this wire ...MFJ, NYE,Denton,Drake Ect..

Charles

What are Airdux coils made from ?

Tin plated copper wire.

If it was silver it would be tarnished...

If it is the hookup wire and it is not tarnished, then it is tin plated. Tin plated bus is available most electronics distributors made by, Alpha, Belden Daburn, etc. Up tp 12 ga can be stretched by hand to get it straight. For larger sizes of bus stretching with tooling will work.

I used to stretch up to 3/8 soft copper tubing with a chain ratchet. YMMV chas

1960 14 year old farm kid ham high school buddy needed low stretch wire for 40 meter dipole and bus wire for tuner from CQ magazine. 12 year old helper neighbor kid and I helped him "Borrow" #16 wire from derelict barn to be torn down lighting circuit. telegraph type wire spliced pieces to one long length. Tie one end to barn heavy foundation timber. Tie other end to tractor. Jump on tractor (no permission needed back then) and slowly drive until taught with his co-conspirator 11 year old sister telling when to stop. Very slowly drive a few more feet. Park tractor and cut wire to lengths. When Dad asks where did dipole wire come from buddy confesses. Dad laughs and says cost of diesel will be deducted from allowance. Never was deducted. Sister got h*ll from mom for helping those crazy boys. I helped to "borrow" the wire and still have little scar from a staple that attacked me. Sister later married the helper buddy. Still married today. Small town and farm life was different back then.

Wire in the "TUNER" does not need to be any larger gauge than the wire in the coil(s).

Buss wire that’s the name I needed!! Now it’s easy to find
Thanks everyone

Wd8axa

I am not familier with your "exact" tuner, but, there can be large circulating RF current between the tuners devices. Often, flat silver plated ribbon is used or copper tubing as the RF currents are on the outside of the conductor. If an image can be found of the interior go with that configuration, route the connections the same too. GL chas