Hams being innovative come up with a myriad of cheap alternatives for wire for antennas. One of those alternatives is common 0.91mm steel MIG wire.
Steel MIG wire is often coated with copper and is claimed by some online experts to “work real good”, particularly as a stealth antenna.
But is it the makings of a reasonably efficient antenna?
This article applies the model developed at A model of current distribution in copper clad steel conductors at RF to estimate the effective RF resistance of the wire at 3.5MHz.
Copper coated round steel conductor (MIG wire) – 0.91mm single core
In fact copper is an undesirable and restricted contaminant of steel welding wire, high grade MIG wire is not copper coated.
Copper content is held to less than 0.05% in the core, and less than 0.05% in the coating… which on my calcs says the coating of common 0.91mm MIG wire is less than 0.125µm…. basically it is a small diameter wire with low conductivity and high permeability. Continue reading 80m half wave dipole made from 0.91mm steel MIG wire