In my case, the width of the aluminum tape I used was not sufficient to wrap entirely around the PVC tube (minus the gap), so I needed to overlap two layers. The adhesive keeps the two layers from making good electrical contact. Also, it is next to impossible to solder a copper wire to aluminum with standard soldering techniques.
To get around these issues, I drilled a small hole at one end of the aluminum tape-covered tube about 1/2" from the gap and 1" from the tube end, where it fits into the junction box. I stripped about 2" of insulation from a solid length of 24AWG wire and passed the exposed wire through the hole from the inside of the tube. I bent the exposed wire into a repeating "S" shape and bent the S so it bridged the two layers of foil tape (NOT across the gap, but across where the two foil layers overlap). I then used another short piece of aluminum tape over the "S" to secure the wire across the layers. I used a small dental tool to press the tape around the S curves to keep the wire in good contact with the tape shield.
The other end of the shield ground wire is connected with the grounded end of the ferrite antenna and the black and drain wires of a short piece of shielded microphone cable. The other end of the microphone cable has the black and drain wires connected to the grounded side of the amplifier input.
The ungrounded side of the ferrite antenna is connected to the red wire of the microphone cable. The red wire on the other end of the microphone cable is connected to the ungrounded amplifier input terminal.
Don
WD9DMP
Awesome information. Thank you for all of the replies. And thank you for taking it easy on me. I will get some copper/aluminum tape to make the appropriate changes to my setup. I may try it without shielding to see if there is a change. When i get the copper/aluminum tape where do i solder the ground wire on it? close to the longitudinal gap or does it matter?
also is the metal tape easier than the proposed hdd ribbon cable or is it a better option? Just curious.
Again thank you guys for the help and explanations.
Nick
KK4ANB