Mark-

After thinking about this for a while, I think I have a solution:

Lay on a coat of Epoxy paint over the wood. Take it or send it to a Metal spray outfit and have the flame or plasma spray a layer of copper over the top.

Make sure you detail where it has to be masked, they will mask it with polyimide.

Scott W7SVJ

From: MARK DORNEY <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, January 12, 2024 17:18
To: [email protected]
Cc: Michael Hanz <[email protected]>; ARC-5 <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [ARC5] [MRCA] AN-104 aircraft antenna copper sheathing replacement.

What’s happening with the copper sheath on the antenna I have is that the copper is heavily worn, and is peeling away from the wood core.  The wood itself looks to be in good shape. 

Mark D. 

WW2RDO

“In matters of style, float with the current. In matters of Principle, stand like a rock. “.   -   Thomas Jefferson 

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 12, 2024, at 12:28 PM, [email protected] wrote:

The Plated antennas would have likely been copper.  You can’t plate alloys, not easily anyway, and certainly not in that time period. (LBL (layer by layer) deposition with post annealing was developed by the semiconductor industry, 30 years later.  Steel is an alloy.  Also, the plating salts would have to be compatible with the base material (cellulosic fiber). Most aren’t, H2SO4/CuSO4 will attack wood fiber, and that is probably why few of the plated antennas have survived (I assume the wood was sealed with some for of lacquer or varnish, but it was probably an imperfect process).  I also wonder if they may have used metal flame spraying, which was a technique that existed at the time.

Scott W7SVJ

From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Michael Hanz
Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2024 20:44
To: Hubert Miller <[email protected]>; ARC-5 <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [ARC5] [MRCA] AN-104 aircraft antenna copper sheathing replacement.

It's just battery acid, Hue.  My father always did his own auto mechanic work and taught me how to handle it safely.  (Add concentrated acid to the water, not the other way around.) 

I still remember. 

Back before such things became unfashionable, all these lessons were a common part of home mechanic magazines.  We seem to have lost most of that knowledge over the years.  How many people do you know who have a lathe in their home?  After the war it seemed like one in ten - helped by war surplus, of course.  Now it might be one in a thousand.  It would be interesting to see a survey.

That seems very sad.

- Mike  KC4TOS

On 1/11/2024 7:48 PM, Hubert Miller wrote:

OH, i just noticed and read the attachment. Odd, strikes me, that the NBS presented a paper on plating 
baby shoes. When i was reading this and saw the words, "sulfuric acid", i decided i would not be copper
plating any shoes, altho i think it's wonderful that the process is explained. 
-Hue Miller 

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