Al Dykes wrote:




A friend is telling me that PVC has crappy electrical characteristics
and having my wire against it for the entire antenna not good.

I've been making simple VHF antennas with small diameter PVC pipe cut
and glued to make the rigid structure and then taping 12ga copper wire
to the PVC to make the elements.

Should I switch to something else ?



Yes, use thin walled glass fibre pipes!

PVC is not a coherent type/class of material. The producers use all kind of
cheap crap as filler material or as pigment. The common rule is to use
white PVC as most other coloured PVC contains graphite or oxide based
pigments.
However, some white PVC's have chalk as a whitener and as a filler to make
the PVC being formed better in the production gear. It's less sticky that
way.

Some PVC materials are even "soldered" with 70MHz RF!

No, the Microwave oven test doesn't tell you the whole truth - just a hint.

I use very thin walled glassfibre pipes but with a foam filled inside. I use
the expanding "gluey" insulation foam. When dried, the strength of the
pipes have increased dramatically and they bend less in the wind.

Cheers

Dan / M0DFI