In article ,
Jeff Liebermann wrote:

I'm thinking of building a 3 element 20 meter quad (full size)
and I'm stuck on the spreaders. Many people use bamboo
or aluminum with insulators at the tips. Can anyone suggest
alternatives....hopefully inexpensive, common materials?
TIA
Steve

PVC pipe? Probably too heavy and too easy.

Tends to bend pretty easily under sidewise stress (including gravity).
Unless you fix the end of the spreader to the wire element so that the
wire takes up the bending stress, you'd find a PVC-based 20-meter quad
starting to sag badly quite quickly, I'd think.

Also, much standard PVC tubing doesn't stand up to sunlight very well.

Maybe vinyl tubing or thin wall pipe. For stiffness, fill the tubing
with expanding foam urethane fence post compount, cement, or epoxy.

I'd be concerned about the weight of the filling.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!