[sdiy] 0.100 pin header reliability.

[Mike Pepper]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Graham Atkins" <gatkins at blueyonder.co.uk>
> I don't think it was ever used in the past in the UK for domestic
> wiring.
> Some Googling suggests it is used at the power distribution end and
> for industrial applications such as railway signalling.
>
> As to the future copper continues to go up in price and has done rapidly
> in recent years so alternatives will become important.
>
I think most of  the side mounted 3 phase cables on pylon lines are
aluminium over a steel core. The ACSR, (Aluminium Conductor Steel
Reinforced), cable is used because it's current capacity to weight ratio is
better than copper, allowing longer spans, and lower stress. The top earth
cable is copper, (which I think is also reinforced).. I once had a  rather
grisly job helping to sift through the evidence when one of a group of cable
thieves had slipped and reached out for one of the phases to stop himself
falling. He might have lived if he's just fallen. The 220KV didn't give him
a chance: he'd burned out like a fuse. They were after the top earth cable,
and had done a bit of liquid courage to psych themselves up. I heard that
the police who rounded the gang up made them all 'identify' the body. In
another case I heard of, but didn't see, the cut end of the stolen earth
cable had swung into one of the phases, burnng it through at the pointof
impact. The high voltage end hit the, (damp) ground, and several of the
would be robbers were hurt by shock from the earth. It's take no prosoners
stuff up on those lines.

||\/||ike