Collapsible Helicone Antenna

AS SEEN AT THE HAM RADIO 2025 & European Rover Challenge 2025: Collapsible Helicone Antenna for 1.7 GHz weather satellites with brass rods as hinges and a flexible conductive mesh as the cone. Also needs a lot of m2 self tapping screws...

Rubber bands go into the slits to make it stay open. Normal ones degraded after a few months. Cheap hairties too. Silicone bands seem to work much better. Some 10cm diameter silicone jar seals have been holding up for 6 months now!

for the mesh do not use:

- thick aluminium mesh (it will permanently deform)
- any steel mesh (same thing, though very fine steel mesh will last longer)
- dense metallized nylon mesh (it acts more like plastic sheets)

only working material so far:

- fine silver coated nylon mesh

Probably best print the hub, the handle and the helix scaffold with 3-thick walls at least. the others are fine with 2.
Also use relatively thick wire for the helix; when closing, the legs hit the topmost loop of wire and if it's too thin it'l