Plated copper?

[trees]

Nickel plated copper pipe, good, efficient conductor for making an antenna? Or, is nickel too lossy. The current will travel on the outer surface, skin effect, yes?

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

I'm pretty sure copper is better than nickle. There is a reason wire is not made of nickle.

 

[trees]

I'm pretty sure copper is better than nickle. There is a reason wire is not made of nickle.

I was wondering about the permeability of the plating. I acquired some plated pipe, and am considering using as is. Also thinking about stripping the plating off...but, if the rf permeates the nickel and travels on the copper underneath, then it would be a good material and removing the plating would be unnecessary. Also, although the nickel is not nearly as efficient a conductor, short lengths might make the differences negligible.

 

[BOOTY2]

most any electrically conductive wire or tube/pipe/rod can be used to make antennas . weight , stiffness and strength makes many things impractical depending on the physical lengths .

 

[Onelasttime]

Technically speaking copper and nickel are not a good combo from a plating standpoint they poison each other from a plating chemistry standpoint. That does not mean you can not nickel plate copper or copper plate nickel. Nickle has a lot of advantages over copper when mechanical sliding of parts is considered but copper has many advantages over nickel when talking about electrical or thermal conduction. Some of the best trumpet pistons are nickel plated.Nickle alloys can take a lot of heat etc...

Copper roofs in Europe are sometimes many many hundreds of years old. Once the copper has that telltale green patina it stops oxidizing at that point so unlike steel the oxide layer on copper is protective and stops. The only reasons to nickle plate copper is for cosmetics or for sliding wear.

Nicrome wire for parasitics on a tube amp is more wives tale than science.