I used to watch the engineers in my dad's shop work on antennas, and I was always fascinated at how these huge, angular constructions could not only be kept upright in the blowing wind on rooftops, but could be remote controlled by someone inside, spinning dials on a little tuner. I was also interested in the different physical materials that went into their construction -- how some materials were chosen for antenna performance while others were used for strength or flexibility.

One of the areas of Ham radio that I know is going to interest me the most is antennas. I want to learn how to build antennas that are compact and transportable, but highly efficient. I want to know how to cobble together a workable antenna using parts that can be salvaged from whatever's lying about. And I want to learn how to design and install large antennas that blend into the landscape.

If I can ever master the basics, and get to the point where I can build my own custom antennas (what to speak of operating radio equipment well enough to take advantage of them!), then I'd love to start experimenting with the materials used to build them -- particularly the rare earth metals.

I've done a bit of reading and research on rare earth antennas, and I've seen various antennas that incorporate them – mostly in the form of rare earth magnets. I'm sure there are smart people all over the planet who are experimenting with other applications of rare earth in antennas, but I haven't found much published data about it. Having worked in the field of patents for a number of years, I've cruised the patent databases, but find relatively little prior art in this area.

Of course, there are very complex applications under study, like gold nano-antennas that produce luminescence which is bound to rare earth oxides. That stuff's all waaay over my head. But on the simple side of things, I think it would be fascinating to incorporate rare earth metals into various antenna configurations, testing to see what improvements can be had in radiation, gain, etc.

For example, what would happen if you applied a coating to copper pipe, and the coating contained particulates of a metal like Cerium, which is similar to copper? How would the conductivity compare to copper alone? Could encapsulated rare earth metals be built into an array, almost like a balun, or used to effect harmonics? [Wikipedia has a good chart of the 17 rare earth metals here]

While I know almost nothing about any of these subjects, my imagination is sparked by the notion that there are all these rare earth metals beneath our feet and so little is known about them in the common domain. Study and experimentation goes on in scientific and manufacturing R&D environments, but Ham radio seems to afford an opportunity to experiment in a very rudimentary and commonsense way with these metals, measuring success by how much improvement one can get in broadcast and reception of radio signals.

So, while it's a long way from "I just passed the Basic test" to the lofty realms of experimenting with antennas, a girl's gotta dream…