Stainless is readily available, it's non rusting, and is also much
siffer than copper so you can use thinner wall. Downside is that it ahs
much higher resitance than copper, tends to mess up both the gain from
the antenna as well as the exact dimensions.

wrote:

I am wanting to get into amateur radio antenna building most plans for
a j pole antenna I have seen use 1/2 inch coper tubing. I was wondering
if I could use stainless steel to make it rust proof. Any ideas where
one could cheaply get small diameter stainless stell tubing?
Any of you out there work with amateure radio antennas?