Strioed wrote:
"Someone told me it would not amount to much in ham use."

It`s how long te elements need to be that determines the loss stainless
steel adds to an antenna. For VHF, stainless is fine. For HF, you may be
creating a combination antenna and dummy load by using stainless in
place of aluminum or copper.

You can imitate what is usual commerciall practice for an amateur
antenna at similar frequencies. There are gold-plated antennas, but this
isn`t usual practice. It is extreme and certainly so for VHF. Some of
the best antennas used at VHF have long been stainless steel. The big
problem is stainless steel hardware which galls and binds. There is
bound to be an anti-sieze preparation to mitigate this bind.

Best regards, Richard Harrison, KB5WZI