DIY Antenna Materials
Regular readers of these pages may remember my earlier attempt to build a UHF antenna for HDTV reception. It worked surprisingly well, especially considering that it was a crude prototype. My subsequent attempts at antenna building were less successful, for a variety of reasons I may go into later.
I think that the copper wire I used in my original antenna was too thin for good results. I intend to build another antenna, so I’ve been looking ever since for some better materials. The other day when I was at Home Depot, I took a closer look at the wire they had for sale. The 8 and 10 gauge copper wire looked good to me, but I still would like a material a bit more resistant to damage.
I told the associate in that section what I was after, and asked him if they had any aluminum wire or rods. He acted as puzzled as if I had asked him if they carried gold bars. The only aluminum material he could think of was electric fence wire (which turned out to be galvanized steel) and rods used for arc welding. Neither seemed like a good choice.
I’m left confused by the lack of aluminum material. Is there an aluminum shortage I’m not aware of, or was this Home Depot just a bit lacking in aluminum?
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