Total posts : 45366
Since Im finally getting people thinking that AM might be our best option, I have a question relating to this antenna thread. How does the diameter of the pipe affect the sound quality of the signal. Obviously there is a certain trade-off somewhere, but does a 1 inch (or larger) diameter pipe make a noticeable difference over a 1/2 inch pipe?
Has anyone seen any difference is performance by using a different material (like stainless) instead of the copper.
One mod I might suggest, and one that I’ll try if we end up building an AM system, is to use a pipe coupler instead of cuting the 3/4 inch pipe. 3/4 to 1/2 reducers should be very easy to find, and all that would need to be done is to grind out the stop so that the 1/2 inch pipe can be pushed all the way through the coupler. Once you get your tuning set, you could use solder to fix the antenna. This would let you fight off corrosion at the joint, and keep water from running down inside the antenna. It should also be stronger for high wind use. The same could be applied to larger diameter pipes.
If you didn’t want to solder the joint, you could probably use some sort of clamp to fix the two pieces together, though it still won’t slide well after the metal is distorted.
