Copper wire

[rocky28965]

Looking at building one of these for RX only

Build a 2 Meter Vertical Antenna | Mike's Tech Blog | Page 2

Having trouble finding solid copper wire of that gauge.
Would several thinner wires twisted together work ok.

 

[ab5r]

Hi Rocky. Yes, twisted "could" work; and even better is soldered lengthwise for strength. You might check the wire gauge of common household wiring and strip the insulation off. Good Luck.

 

[jonwienke]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litz_wire

 

[JamesO]

Looking at building one of these for RX only

Build a 2 Meter Vertical Antenna | Mike's Tech Blog | Page 2

Having trouble finding solid copper wire of that gauge.
Would several thinner wires twisted together work ok.

I see you are down under, however, 14 AWG solid copper wire is READILY available in North America because it is one of the most common wire sizes for residential house electrical circuits.

You can find this at any home center, hardware store and even Walmarts within North America.

I would bet you have something similar down under. I think 1.6 mm would be the problem metric size. You could also use brass brazing rods as well of comparable size.

 

[rocky28965]

Hi Rocky. Yes, twisted "could" work; and even better is soldered lengthwise for strength. You might check the wire gauge of common household wiring and strip the insulation off. Good Luck.

Inquired at local supplier this morning re this.
Was told most cable is now multi strand.
Looked at some heavy earth cable.
Didn't measure it but it appeared to be 16 or 18 gauge multi strand.

 

[rocky28965]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litz_wire

May be a bit on the floppy side.

 

[mmckenna]

Inquired at local supplier this morning re this.
Was told most cable is now multi strand.
Looked at some heavy earth cable.
Didn't measure it but it appeared to be 16 or 18 gauge multi strand.

Do you mean an individual conductor made out of multiple strands, or like what we call "Romex" cable, which is a jacketed cable with individual conductors for the hot, neutral and ground(earth) "mains" power?

If it's the Romex type stuff, buy some of that and just strip the outer jacket off. I'd find it hard to believe that there isn't solid wire somewhere in New Zealand.

 

[jonwienke]

May be a bit on the floppy side.

Even solid copper wire is going to be less than sturdy, given the dimensions needed for a 2-meter antenna. A UHF or 800MHz antenna would handle wind reasonably well, but a 2-meter antenna is going to bend even if it was solid 12-gauge wire. A better alternative structurally would be to use copper tubing, such as used for household water pipes.

 

[rocky28965]

Might have to go with copper tubing then.
It's actually for airband so the legs will be longer than for 2M.

 

[jonwienke]

Larger diameter conductors also have the advantage of increasing the usable bandwidth of the antenna.

 

[rocky28965]

Yeah, they also make it more visible, which is not desirable.

 

[prcguy]

I've made quite a few VHF ground planes using brass brazing rods for the elements. They come in various diameters and some fit the solder cup on the back of an SO-239 perfectly. They are also very stiff and a VHF air band version would not have any trouble in the wind. Some hardware and hobby stores in the US sell thin brass tubing that will fit over the solder cup on an SO-230 for a slightly thicker vertical element.
prcguuy

Might have to go with copper tubing then.
It's actually for airband so the legs will be longer than for 2M.

 

[rocky28965]

I did think about brazing rods & I've used a few in the past as a engineer.
But they were only 500mm long which is too short for this project.
Could join a couple I suppose.

 

[mmckenna]

Wire coat hanger.
Salvage an antenna off something else.
etc.

 

[K5MPH]

Wire coat hanger.
Salvage an antenna off something else.
etc.

I agree on the wire coat hanger,i have made many antennas over the years and it is easy to bend and cheep to use......

 

[Chronic]

telescopic antenna then it is adjustable for many different bands

 

[majoco]

I make or modify my antennas out of aluminium tubing which is available at plumber's merchants - you may have to buy a rather long length though. Scrapped TV antennas are a good source of tubing and fittings - there's still plenty attached to houses that are not needed, either because they all use Sky or UHF Freeview!

 

[ladn]

IF it's available, solid aluminum wire or rod would also work.

 

[jonwienke]

The problem with aluminum is that you can't solder to it.

 

[lmrtek]

Brazing rods are cheap, strong and easy to get.

Or you can strip the center conductor from some cheap RG6 coax with a copper coated steel center conductor.

Or if you know someone who has a mig welder chances are they have
spools of copper plated steel wire