Henry Kiefer wrote:
1. Ferrite and powdered iron are entirely different materials, with
different physical and magnetic characteristics. Powdered iron isn't a
good choice for this application.

Powdered iron should work better because of the higher permeability even
under heavy load in comparision to ferrite. I think so in theory - not
tested.

The effective permeability of a rod is dictated largely by the air gap
in the magnetic path, which is a function of the length/diameter ratio
of the rod. Powdered iron in general has very low permeability compared
to ferrite. If you really wanted to apply a huge amount of power to a
rod antenna, powdered iron might be a better choice because of its high
saturation flux density. But I doubt you could get the Q of a ferrite
rod antenna at the frequency in question, so it would be considerably
less efficient. You'd probably end up with less power radiated than if
you ran less power to a ferrite rod antenna, and a less efficient
antenna would impact your received signal. You'd have to crunch some
numbers or make measurements to find out for sure.

2. You're not likely to drive either one into a nonlinear region when
they're in the form of a rod because of the large air gap in the
magnetic path.

Can you explain this more detailed Ron? What will happen with the air gap?
The losses in the air gap radiates and that is the antenna function?

The presence of even a small air gap has the effect of reducing the
effective permeability of the core and therefore the inductance of the
winding. It also dramatically reduces the core flux density for a given
number of winding amp-turns. This makes it very hard to saturate.
Inductors used for power applications commonly have a small core gap for
this reason. A rod has a very large air gap in the path -- from one end
of the rod, curving around outside the rod, to the other. And for many
ferrites used at radio frequency, the material loss is high enough that
the core would be hot enough to explode well before you reach a flux
level anywhere close to saturation. This isn't true of all materials at
all frequencies, of course.

The radiation takes place from the field outside the core, i.e., in the
air gap. If you didn't have a gap, you wouldn't have any significant
radiation.

And it's Roy, not Ron.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL