Hi Simon , G4ELI
Stainless steel is a very bad material to be used to made antennas or to be used as an electrical conductor because his specific resistivity is very very high ( 1,61 x 10^-7 )
Since at Radio Frequency the RF current flows only over a thin surface of the metallic material than the stainless steel could be used provided it is electrolitically silver plated because the specific resistivity of silver is the lowest possible ( 1,59 x 10^-9 ) but this procedure is very costly and the silver over the stainless steel do not last very much !
Use only aluminum for your antennas as shows the very low specific resistivity of aluminum as listed on the following address:
http://metals.about.com/od/properties/a/Electrical-Conductivity-In-Metals.ht...
73" de
i8CVS Domenico
----- Original Message ----- From: "Simon Brown" simon@sdr-radio.com To: "'Amsat - BBs'" amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Monday, April 14, 2014 2:19 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] @m / &0cms Antennas
Hi,
Are there any crossed Yagi antennas for 2m and 70cms made from stainless steel which are available in the UK?
My WIMO antennas are ~8 years old and as I'm moving house I'm thinking about something better.
Looking for ~3m boom length.
Simon Brown G4ELI http://v2.sdr-radio.com