And just a little hint to make things a bit easier.
The numbers you come up with using this/these formulas are slightly 'too long' measurements. Not much 'too long' but some. That gives you a sort of 'safety margin'/'fudge factor' when tuning the thing for resonance. Too long is a lot easier to deal with than 'too short'. It's also a sort of good idea to add just a little bit more to that measurement so that you have enough wire to make connections, wrap around insulators, etc. The only 'trick' to the whole thing is to keep the 'sides' of a dipole/doublet of equal length (at least close!). You will have to do a bit of 'trimming' to get the final 'right' length, but you'll have to do that anyway, no biggy.
The type/kind of wire you use for antennas isn't critical at all, it just has to be able to conduct electricity. It also has to be strong enough to hold up it's own weight and a little bit more. Stretching is not exactly good, so a 'harder' type wire is nice. Stranded or solid makes no practical difference, neither does insulated/uninsulated. Whatever you happen to have the most of will probably work just fine. Anything larger than about a 10 ga. is really over kill unless it's a very, very long antenna, #14 works very well, easy to handle, cheaper too! Got miles of #8 wire? Use it, it'll just weigh more. (Can I have some??)
After you've been around this stuff for a while it'll all seem like common sense. Common sense takes a while to learn though. Have fun!
- 'Doc