Can I use coat hanger for elements?

[AlmostHandy]

When I build an antenna, can I use coat hanger wire for elements? What kind of metal is it? It seems pretty sturdy. Does it solder well?

Sorry if it's a dumb question. I was just curious, and google has very little to offer about the electrical properties of coat hanger wire.

I suppose I should take my fluke to a length and get some resistance measurements.

(And yes, I'm aware that striped #10 Romex is "best", but I'm still curious! )

 

[Don_Burke]

When I build an antenna, can I use coat hanger wire for elements? What kind of metal is it? It seems pretty sturdy. Does it solder well?

Yes, you can use coathanger wire, especially for parasitic elements.

It is usually an end of run steel and usually solders poorly.

 

[AlmostHandy]

Right on. I suppose I could braze it.

 

[breadtrk]

Don't forget the little deal about it rusting away in a week outdoors.

 

[Don_Burke]

Don't forget the little deal about it rusting away in a week outdoors.

A can of Krylon can address that.

 

[commscanaus]

Used to make heaps of antenna's out of coat hangers when I was younger- until my mother got fed up with running out of them!

As Don Burke pointed out- they solder poorly. I used to use the screw terminals from those terminal blocks to get around it.

Spray paint is your friend- some clear lacquer is good.

The better alternative is to use some brass brazing rod- any Home Depot or hardware store should stock it in the welding supplies section. Used it to make some 2.4Ghz WiFi yagis- solders like a treat and weathers well too.
The brass rod will prevent you from having to pile clothes on the floor!

Regards, Commscanaus.

 

[breadtrk]

I guess it is just my local conditions, I have sprayed, dipped, and wrapped them and they always rust in short time. I have homing pigeons and chickens that like to roost up there, bird poop is some powerful stuff.

 

[AlmostHandy]

Oh brazing rods is a good idea. I'd much rather solder, than use that torch.

Frankly, the torch scares the hell out of me. After brazing tiny little carbide tips to tooling bars for a few shifts, you never want to use that damn torch again. Ever try to handle a carbide tool tip with welding gloves on? I never told them how many fell under that workbench.

 

[kb2vxa]

To put it simply;

"When I build an antenna, can I use coat hanger wire for elements?"
Yes.

"What kind of metal is it?"
Soft steel wire.

"It seems pretty sturdy."
It is.

"Does it solder well?"
Yes.

"Sorry if it's a dumb question. I was just curious, and Google has very little to offer about the electrical properties of coat hanger wire."
Not dumb at all! Coat hangers are excellent for making antennas... if you like instant rust so keep it indoors. Steel is a good conductor of electricity so why not? Never mind Googoo, I seriously doubt any electrical engineers have published papers on the electrical characteristics of coat hangers.

"I suppose I should take my Fluke to a length and get some resistance measurements."
I suppose not unless you like looking at a short circuit (zero ohms) and if it has a conductivity (seimens/mho) scale you probably don't know how to interpret conductivity anyway. A Kelvin bridge (Leeds-Northrup makes a good one) will tell you the actual resistance in milliohms as if that's meaningful in this sort of application.

Setting my sardonic sense of humor aside (temporarily) brazing rod is a much better choice for outdoor applications and it solders well. Soldering ALL electrical connections is a MUST if you want good electrical contact corrosion and weathering won't disrupt regardless of mechanical mounting. Small elements don't need nuts and bolts if you design the antenna well enough for the solder to hold them properly, large surfaces flooded with solder hold up nicely. Large elements are another story but I'm not writing a book here, there are plenty available already. One thing the books may not tell you is avoid cadmium plated hardware at all cost, the last thing you need is a lump of rust that cannot be taken apart again. Stainless steel is the way to go should you need to make a future repair or something.

 

[Don_Burke]

I guess it is just my local conditions, I have sprayed, dipped, and wrapped them and they always rust in short time. I have homing pigeons and chickens that like to roost up there, bird poop is some powerful stuff.

Perhaps the surface prep is the issue.

If poop was the issue it would affect other metals as well.

 

[drumz0rz]

Keep in mind that birds don't urinate, so their poop is acidic.

 

[davidmc36]

I have made a few antennas using piano wire but it too rusts quite quickly. One that I had on my mag mount for quite a while had a fair layer of rust on it. Question is, how much does the rust affect the receptiion? How thick would it have to be to cause any great attenuation?

 

[ratboy]

I made several ground planes and a discone out of coat hangers. I had a friend who owned a dry cleaning place and I would get the bent ones from him for free. I had a box of them, like 500, and every so often I would get them out and make some antennas. IF you filed the ends of them to make sure they were clean, the ones I had soldered great, almost instantly, with a BIG iron. One of them is over 20 years old, and I have changed the coax a couple times over that time. Brazing rod is better, but it wasn't free, so I didn't use it much.

 

[hoser147]

There are alot of advise and opinions here and I suspect alot of trial and error also. Why not use better quality materials and only have to do it once?? There are alot of good antenna threads on homebrews here in the forums, as well as the Wiki. Good Luck

 

[kb2vxa]

Trial and error yes, my coat hanger ground plane turned to a lump of rust in about a month and it took about that long for my copper wire one to turn into a pretzel. Maybe that's why I settled on brazing rods... hmmm. Hey, that's what Amateur Radio is all about guys, experimenting; so if at first you don't succeed use a bigger hammer and if all else fails explosives usually do the trick.