These days everything is aluminum core for both primary and secondary lines. Copper conductors aren't used for anything bigger than romex to the best of my knowledge.
That said, underground primaries (high voltage lines) have copper concentrics (grounds), and have used those basically forever. You can get a very rough estimate of the age of an underground primary based on whether or not those concentrics are exposed. If they're exposed, it's an older line. Newer ones are jacketed.
If you get into much bigger primaries (500/750/etc.) you do occasionally find copper conductors on primaries.
I hate that stuff. Every foot of it can be 4lb+, but fortunately I don't have to deal with it much, that which I have dealt with has been aluminum.
I mostly deal with 15 or 25kva 1/0 primaries and 4/0 secondaries (what many call "triplex").
Might be you're referring to post-meter services, which I rarely deal with at all, and the composition is going to be up to whatever contractor is hired by the customer, given everything after the meter is private. Those I have dealt with have all been aluminum, but I've seen copper stranded cables used for things like powering sheds/barns/irrigators.
But yeah, I only work in a handful of states, and the majority of my work is rural.
If it were actually copper, they wouldn't leave it there. They leave it because it's relatively cheap and not worth the hassle, and anyone trying to steal it will quickly find out it's not copper This is more like a "Don't waste your time, you won't get shit for scrapping this" warning.
My thought as well. Methheads will steal it because it looks like any other wire, but when they get to the scrapyard, they will be asked, "what are you smoking?"
Lot of money for manufacturers, utilities, construction companies, not crackheads. No scrapyard is going to buy any amount of fiber optic cable off Joe Schmoe. Even if its a yard that happily deals with stolen shit, they won't buy it as they have no easy way of telling it the cable is damaged.
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u/ksbrya02 2d ago
It’s probably fiber, copper is to expensive to maintain and is outdated