Mild steel wire for Yagis
 

I plan to make a 6 element Yagi for FM reception at about 100 MHz. I
would like to use 1/8 diameter mild steel wire for the parasitic elements.
I have absolutely no experience with mild steel for antennas, but thought it
would be more bird tolerant than the copper wire model I made.
I'd sure appreciate hearing from anyone who knows about mild steel for
"VHF" antennas.

Jerry

"Jerry Martes" wrote in message
news:2%K_d.13959$hA3.6854@trnddc09...
I plan to make a 6 element Yagi for FM reception at about 100 MHz. I
would like to use 1/8 diameter mild steel wire for the parasitic elements.
I have absolutely no experience with mild steel for antennas, but thought
it would be more bird tolerant than the copper wire model I made.
I'd sure appreciate hearing from anyone who knows about mild steel for
"VHF" antennas.

Jerry

Rust ... colors towers and roofs well.

Aluminum is lighter and easier to fabricate or cut. A good sized hardware
store will have 1/8" aluminum rod or tube.

gb

"gb" wrote in message
...
"Jerry Martes" wrote in message
news:2%K_d.13959$hA3.6854@trnddc09...
I plan to make a 6 element Yagi for FM reception at about 100 MHz. I
would like to use 1/8 diameter mild steel wire for the parasitic
elements. I have absolutely no experience with mild steel for antennas,
but thought it would be more bird tolerant than the copper wire model I
made.
I'd sure appreciate hearing from anyone who knows about mild steel for
"VHF" antennas.

Jerry

Rust ... colors towers and roofs well.

Aluminum is lighter and easier to fabricate or cut. A good sized hardware
store will have 1/8" aluminum rod or tube.

gb
Garden stores sell coils of aluminum wire thats a bit larger than 1/8th
inch, may even be close to 3/16th inch dia. I have a coil out in the garage
but given that I don't keep a very neat garage I'm just not gonna go out at
midnight to get an exact measurement.

Harold
KD5SAK

You might try some large mild steel welding rod, like the kind used for
GAS welding. What I have seen is copper plated and easy to solder to.

John
"Jerry Martes" wrote in message
news:2%K_d.13959$hA3.6854@trnddc09...
I plan to make a 6 element Yagi for FM reception at about 100 MHz. I
would like to use 1/8 diameter mild steel wire for the parasitic elements.
I have absolutely no experience with mild steel for antennas, but thought
it would be more bird tolerant than the copper wire model I made.
I'd sure appreciate hearing from anyone who knows about mild steel for
"VHF" antennas.

Jerry

Jerry Martes wrote:
I plan to make a 6 element Yagi for FM reception at about 100 MHz. I
would like to use 1/8 diameter mild steel wire for the parasitic elements.
I have absolutely no experience with mild steel for antennas, but thought it
would be more bird tolerant than the copper wire model I made.
I'd sure appreciate hearing from anyone who knows about mild steel for
"VHF" antennas.

Jerry

Will rust like hell.

Aluminum close line wire is pretty cheap and fairly thick and sturdy.

Brazing rod is a bit more expensive and really sturdy unless you have
eagles perching on your antennas.

--
Jim Pennino

Remove -spam-sux to reply.

Stainless welding wire, comes on a 500 metre roll.
Or get a length of the 1/4 inch plumbers microbore tube also hard drawn
copper wire is quite sturdy on sorter lengths.
You just anneal it and stretch till it feels springy, by clamping wire in
the vice and wrapping the other end round a stick stretch to your specks by
pulling on the stick.

wouldnt it be cheaper and easier to just go to radio shack and by an FM
yagi
i believe they have a 5 or 7ele yagi for a cheap price

Jerry Martes wrote:
I plan to make a 6 element Yagi for FM reception at about 100 MHz. I
would like to use 1/8 diameter mild steel wire for the parasitic elements.
I have absolutely no experience with mild steel for antennas, but thought it
would be more bird tolerant than the copper wire model I made.
I'd sure appreciate hearing from anyone who knows about mild steel for
"VHF" antennas.

Jerry

Thanks for the good information on steel elements for a 100MHz yagi. I
think I was concerned about something that didnt exist. I thought the fact
that the steel was magnetic might effect the elements. I'm comfortable
with using this steel wire now. I saw the straight lengths of wire at Home
Depot where they sell it for hanging Drop Ceilings. It may not be a rust
problem because of the coating on the wire But, the antennas will be in the
San Diego Calif. desert anyway, so rust isnt a big problem. Besides, these
are gifts so the new owners cal deal with the rust if they want clean *and*
cheap.

PS I'm building this (actually several) antenna for friends who live far
enough away from the city that their radio reception is poor. This
"building of antennas" is strictly fun and learning for me. There is no
chance of my buying any commercial antenna, even if it costs me more to
build one. I did build one with copper elements and it worked very well.

Jerry





"Dennis Kaylor" wrote in message
...
wouldnt it be cheaper and easier to just go to radio shack and by an FM
yagi
i believe they have a 5 or 7ele yagi for a cheap price

Jerry Martes wrote:
I plan to make a 6 element Yagi for FM reception at about 100 MHz. I
would like to use 1/8 diameter mild steel wire for the parasitic
elements. I have absolutely no experience with mild steel for antennas,
but thought it would be more bird tolerant than the copper wire model I
made.
I'd sure appreciate hearing from anyone who knows about mild steel for
"VHF" antennas.

Jerry

"Jerry Martes" wrote in message
news:9v__d.12789$oa6.3380@trnddc07...
Thanks for the good information on steel elements for a 100MHz yagi. I
think I was concerned about something that didnt exist. I thought the
fact that the steel was magnetic might effect the elements. I'm
comfortable with using this steel wire now. I saw the straight lengths of
wire at Home Depot where they sell it for hanging Drop Ceilings. It may
not be a rust problem because of the coating on the wire But, the
antennas will be in the San Diego Calif. desert anyway, so rust isnt a big
problem. Besides, these are gifts so the new owners cal deal with the
rust if they want clean *and* cheap.

PS I'm building this (actually several) antenna for friends who live far
enough away from the city that their radio reception is poor. This
"building of antennas" is strictly fun and learning for me. There is no
chance of my buying any commercial antenna, even if it costs me more to
build one. I did build one with copper elements and it worked very well.

Jerry

Jerry -

In the Popular Electronics July 1969 (VHF/FM) and December 1971 (UHF) ran a
series of articles for homebuilding
FM, VHF and UHF antennas. George J. Monser was the author of these
articles, "Build the Pyramidal TV/FM antenna" who the lived in the Santa
Barbara, CA area.

gb

"gb" wrote in message
...
"Jerry Martes" wrote in message
news:9v__d.12789$oa6.3380@trnddc07...
Thanks for the good information on steel elements for a 100MHz yagi. I
think I was concerned about something that didnt exist. I thought the
fact that the steel was magnetic might effect the elements. I'm
comfortable with using this steel wire now. I saw the straight lengths
of wire at Home Depot where they sell it for hanging Drop Ceilings. It
may not be a rust problem because of the coating on the wire But, the
antennas will be in the San Diego Calif. desert anyway, so rust isnt a
big problem. Besides, these are gifts so the new owners cal deal with
the rust if they want clean *and* cheap.

PS I'm building this (actually several) antenna for friends who live
far enough away from the city that their radio reception is poor. This
"building of antennas" is strictly fun and learning for me. There is
no chance of my buying any commercial antenna, even if it costs me more
to build one. I did build one with copper elements and it worked very
well.

Jerry

Jerry -

In the Popular Electronics July 1969 (VHF/FM) and December 1971 (UHF) ran
a series of articles for homebuilding FM, VHF and UHF antennas. George
J. Monser was the author of these articles, "Build the Pyramidal TV/FM
antenna" and Build the Mini-Pyramidal UHF TV antenna" who the lived in the
Santa Barbara, CA area.

w9gb


BTW, Mr. Monser was a 1947 Connell University graduate in Electrical
Engineering.

Cornell's alumni magazine reported that: George J. Monser ('47 BS EE) of Las
Vegas, NV, formerly of Goleta, CA,
passed away on January 4, 1998. He was a retired consulting engineer for
Raytheon Corporation and author.

-/-