I am a real newbie (~1 year) to electronics and just have the basics, but having recently enjoyed building a few cheap Chinese radio kits and also enjoying survival/camping stuff, i also have several ferrocerium rods of various diameters and lengths. Then (uh-oh!) i started wondering if they would work..?? Anyone know, please? Just plain curiosity, but i am also looking at building my own breadboard radio based on the TA7642 chip. Thanks!

 

Core antennas are very inefficient in operation, so I doubt that your FC rod would make it any worse. Why don't you give it a try and report your findings back to us?

 

OK, thanks for the reply

 

I don't believe I would use those rods around any current. But I am not an expert. But am leery.

 

Thank you also for replying

 

Here is some basic information about radio waves.

The wave is called an electromagnetic wave. That is because the wave has two components, an electrical wave and a magnetic wave.
There are two types of RF antennas in common usage, a long wire or loop antenna, and a ferrite rod antenna.

As you can guess, a long wire antenna receives the electrical wave.
A ferrite rod antenna receives the magnetic wave.

A ferrite rod antenna occupies less space in a pocket radio and is useful for low and medium radio frequencies and when the transmission station is powerful and/or nearby.

Long wire or loop antennas are more efficient and will work for low, medium and high frequencies.
In terms of camping/survival gear, a long wire antenna is preferred since it fits in a backpack easily and is easy to set up in the outdoors.

 

Ferrocerium rods are not ferrite rods.

 

Ferrocerium rods are not ferrite rods.

Correct! Hence my question......

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrocerium

 

A ferrite rod antenna receives the magnetic wave.

My thinking was along those lines.......as there is also iron/steel/ferro in the ferrocerium rods. So maybe they too would be able to set up the eddy current and receive magnetic waves.....? I guess it also depends on the other elements and they change from rod to rod. But mine are fairly hard so maybe have a higher ferrous content. As stated, the only definitive way to know is to try them and as i am pretty disabled that is out for the winter anyway.

 

Answer is at the post No9

 

Answer is at the post No9

I read your link. Would you like to be more specific, please?

 

What is a relation betw eddy cuurents and RECEIVING of H-field? Except that they harshly will diminish any already small efficiency.

 

OK thanks for your input.

 

BUT, if Your aim is to receive a separately insulated H only or E only fields, there exist some tricky configurations permitting it, as authors vocalize. Is it true or not, about for a while the history kepps silence. As an example, specifically E-type of antenna is evolving two-wire spiral, where one wire begin is one pole and other wire end is other pole, and parasyth capacitance betw wires are giving the resonance. Have measured a near field around it and indeed, the E component is strong whilst H component is not lacking completely but is rather small. Other similar one is infamous HZ-antenna ie resonant tank inside tyhe Faraday Cage. The most surprising is that something it really receives sometimes.

 

I think i must be too much of a radio newbie to understand your comment but thanks anyway.

 

Am not sure. Because any novice knows better as we - the E component may not exist without of H component and V/m*A/m=W/m2. Only they never know that law above IN THE NEAR FIELD of antenna is rarely correct. First that W/m2 are waving with a step of about few meters becoming as larger as smaller with a factor of 2...4 or even larger. They never heard around large antennas like TV towers may happen zones where is damn much A/m but rather nil about V/m. Do that menas in points of such the vacuum radiofrequency impedance is say 1 Ohm instead of normal 376 Ohms?? Thus leading to assumption they probably may understand that somehow indeed are possible very strange devices emitting mostly E component but H component (in near field!! not in the far field) are diminished against the typical antenna.
Yes I realize the widespread assumption the strange "field hole" points are caused with Fringefield Fresnel interferences, but then how to explain I am driving in more than hundred wellknown hole-points in my city, where half of meter affront all radio stations in no respect of frequencies are dying down, then half of meter back or front, and they are singing as everywhere. Fresnel is frequency-dependant, of course.

 

Ferrocerium rods are not ferrite rods.

It's basically a big piece of lighter "flint". According to that WP link, it's only 20% iron, and around 75% Lanthanides. I have no idea how that would work magnetically.

 

Yep, it will be interesting to test it. It appears that loopstick ferrite cores have a MnZn composition with a lower iron percentage too. Please don't mistake that i am thinking that it might be better than ferrite or anything like it. I am just curious as to whether it may work at all. Maybe it will....maybe it won't. It will be interesting to test it when i am able.

 

With any of those cores you'll need a LOT of turns of wire around it to pick up the magnetic field as the mag field is many orders of magnitude lower than the E field.
One of the real questions is what are the losses in the metal itself. If it is not made for RF then the losses could be sky high. Even power line transformer metal would not work well at RF frequencies it's made for much lower frequencies like 50 to 400 Hz. Regular iron is not good either.
One thing you have going for you with the unusual metal is that maybe there is enough of the secondary material to act as an insulator and therefore keep internal currents down very low. A solid bar of iron would not have that feature.

You sure you want to use something that is made for starting fires for an antenna core or anything else for that matter? Seems like there is some risk involved there.
Maybe a small telescoping antenna is the way to go.