DIY Antenna 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?

2 comments on “DIY Antenna Materials

  • Vaughn Nickel wrote:

    Hi Matthew,
    I made my antenna out of 8 ga. copper wire. I then encircled the antenna with a pvc frame with holes drilled in to hold the outer ends of the wire from bending. I pushed the wires in the two side pipes, then with 4 elbows and the top and bottom pieces length now determined, I pvc glued the frame together. I drilled a small drain hole in the bottom pvc pipe and painted everything. It works great.

  • Vaughn Nickel wrote:

    One friend suggested using uncoated brass brazing rod instead of copper wire because of it’s resistance to bending.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Copyright © 2007-2024 by Matthew Reed, all rights reserved.
ContactPrivacy Policy