A couple of nights ago, my girlfriend was fussing over her hair, showing me the long strand of gray she pulled out. After the obligatory reassurances that she is still young and hot in my eyes, I asked for her hair.

"WHY do you want my hair?"

"Airplane antennas!"

She thinks I'm kidding.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y152/RoguePink/Airplanes/antenna.jpg

Yup.

But it changes length depending on local humidity. You're still better off with 1lb fishing line.

Yeah? I'll have to get some.

Depending on the scale, I used to use old guitar strings for antennas of various styles. Of course I would unwind the outer coil on the upper strings to get at the center core. Worked well on planes, tanks, ships and automobiles. :) rr

A long time ago, I was tearing into some old junk radios and TV's scavenging for "thing of interest". Some coils have very small wire in the windings. One subject was particularly rich in variety. I figure I got a lifetime supply. Granted this type of thing may be not so common these days given modern electronics, but coils are still used on a lot of things like armature windings in cooling motors, transformers, etc. Next time you're going to throw something out, take a moment and look it over. When you're always on the lookout for detailing media, you might be surprised what you find that you can't readily buy.

Try taking apart a set of ear bud style ear phones. We always seem to have plenty of dead-in-one-ear sets, and the wire inside is amazingly fine.

The best stuff for all rigging is lycra thread. It should be available from sewing shops. The beauty of it is its stretchiness. If you accidentally knock it, it just bounces back. It's not affected by temp or humidity either.

Chris.:)