GEORGE ABBOTT wrote:

Hi: Can brass rods be used for antenna elements? Regards ,George Abbott Ka1ajf

George,

Yes and no. I have made antennas from brass rod and they worked just fine, but would probably have worked a little better if they had been made from aluminium (aluminum).

Brass rod is a nice material to work with. It's rigid and can be easily soldered. However, the resistivity of brass is higher than aluminium and the I squared R losses are higher. A little more of your Tx energy is wasted warming your antenna if it is made from brass than would be if it was made from aluminium. Most antenna manuals recommend against brass because of this, although I'm not sure how "real" this loss is.

Intriguingly, one our our club members built himself a Q meter, and demonstrated it at a club meeting by measuring the Q of loops of wire from different materials. While brass did less well than than aluminium or copper, galvanised iron wire was significantly better than brass. This was surprising because zinc is generally considered to have a resistivity only slightly less than brass. I built some antennas using heavy galvanised fencing wire, based on the results of this test. They were not a fantastic success.

If you already have the brass rod, then go ahead and experiment.

Radio data Reference Book: G. R. Jessop Relative resistance Copper 1 Aluminium 1.64 Zinc 3.4 Brass 3.9

ARRL Handbook 1992 Resistivity compared to copper (same as relative resistance) Copper 1 Aluminum 1.6 Zinc 3.4 Brass 3.7 to 4.9

Sil ZL2CIA