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E5D10

ELECTRICAL PRINCIPLES · RF effects in components and circuits: skin effect; real and reactive power; electrical length of conductors

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As a conductor's diameter increases, what is the effect on its electrical length?

  1. AThickness has no effect on electrical length
  2. BIt varies randomly
  3. CIt decreases
  4. DIt increases
Why Electrical length is measured in wavelengths or degrees, not feet, so it depends on how fast the wave travels along the conductor. A fatter conductor has more distributed capacitance to its surroundings and a greater end effect, which slows propagation (lowers the velocity factor), so each foot of metal represents more electrical degrees. That is why a thick tubing dipole must be cut physically shorter than a thin wire dipole to resonate on the same frequency.
Watch out The choice that says it decreases confuses electrical length with the physical length needed for resonance: the physical cut gets shorter precisely because the electrical length per foot went up. Saying diameter has no effect ignores the well known shortening factor used when designing fat element beams.
Fat elements get cut short, because fat means electrically long.
HamSandwich explanation, first draft. The question and answers are the NCVEC text.
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The rest of E5D

  1. E5D01 What is the result of conductor skin effect?
  2. E5D02 Why is it important to keep lead lengths short for components used in circuits for VHF and above?
  3. E5D03 What is the phase relationship between current and voltage for reactive power?
  4. E5D04 Why are short connections used at microwave frequencies?
  5. E5D05 What parasitic characteristic causes electrolytic capacitors to be unsuitable for use at RF?
  6. E5D06 What parasitic characteristic creates an inductor's self-resonance?
  7. E5D07 What combines to create the self-resonance of a component?
  8. E5D08 What is the primary cause of loss in film capacitors at RF?
  9. E5D09 What happens to reactive power in ideal inductors and capacitors?
  10. E5D10 As a conductor's diameter increases, what is the effect on its electrical length?
  11. E5D11 How much real power is consumed in a circuit consisting of a 100-ohm resistor in series with a 100-ohm induct…
  12. E5D12 What is reactive power?
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