Richard wrote:
Is anyone engaged is a design philosophy that seeks the design of VHF
yagi's with the smallest acceptable diameter of elements?

What you are trying to do is to design lighweight VHF yagis, you are
seeking how small you can go with element diameters before performance
begins to suffer.

You can still buy the old Flexa-Yagis that use very thin, springy
elements made from stainless steel.

Skin losses in the stainless steel cost about 1dB at 144MHz, but no
lower-loss material has the mechanical strength to survive the loading
from ice or optimistic birds.

Very thin elements are also a serious danger to eyes and, er, other body
parts.


--
73 from Ian G3SEK 'In Practice' columnist for RadCom (RSGB)
http://www.ifwtech.co.uk/g3sek