On Feb 12, 3:21*am, " wrote:
On Feb 11, 9:43*pm, Andy Champ wrote:

Watch out for aluminium wiring too. *Our entire estate (1980s?) is done
with it. It has worse electrical properties, and is prone to joint
corrosion.

Andy

Yeah - might be worth seeing if I can get hold of an old spool of the
stuff on ebay or something.

the problem normally only shows up after years of service in
applications where the cable heats up (and contracts). As it expands
in the connector it squashes (deforms), so when it contracts its no
longer gas tight. Aluminium loves to oxidise, and then you have a
somewhat insulating oxide layer in the connection. Heating should
never happen with phone wiring, so it should behave itself. Probably
you could replicate the fault by heating the cable then clamping to it
quite gently, but I'm not convinced there's a need.


NT