Unfortunately I damaged my bargain bin Ron Thompson 5m travel pole whilst in Wales.
I’m going on a bicycle trip next month and I need a replacement pole that can hold up a 40m EFHW or dipole.
The pole needs to fit on my bicycle - like alongside the top tube.
I’ve seen the SOTAbeams Carbon 6 and the similar pole from Decathlon- is either better than the other? Any other suggestions?
Thanks, 73.
Colin
Colin, Either would do the job. The carbon 6 is lighter and packs shorter, however costs a bit more. That’s not much help, really!
One advantage of the carbon 6 is the availability of spares, from the caps to the individual sections.
Plus one for the Carbon 6
I have the Carbon 6 and the Decathlon “LAKESIDE TELESCOPIC TRAVEL ROD 100 6 M”
The Carbon 6 is my favourite because, as Fraser has said it’s lighter (200g lighter) and packs smaller than the Decathlon pole.
Just something to be aware of, I have 2 different EFHW wires tuned for each pole, as the Carbon pole does effect the SWR in an inverted L’ish configuration. The effect the Carbon pole has on SWR is much greater on my 2m flower pot aerial. I ended up making a bracket to space it 200mm from the pole which seems to work well.
I have photographed them side by side so you can see the difference in packed size.
Thanks for the replies. I’ve seen two poles sold by Decathlon, one is fibreglass at £19.99, the other one is carbon and similar price to the SOTAbeams one.
The blurb on SOTAbeams reckons a Carbon 6 isn’t strong enough to hold a dipole, so maybe the cheaper Decathlon fibreglass pole is the one to go for? I think I’d prefer to use a dipole, as my own experience has shown dipoles to be a bit more dependable. I know that a lot of folks swear by EFHWs, but mostly I swear at them! I’ll be running a QMX and I’m not 100% sold that the QMX likes an end fed.
Just be aware that you really can’t use the last two sections of the Decathlon pole if you want to put up a dipole, so effective height is about 5m.
The QMX is quite happy with an EFHW provided you run it into a Fuchs tuner so that you can compensate for different operating environments. The wire connected to a T50-2 and a 200pF condensator in parallel hooked up directly to the QMX, and used with the tune facility of the QMX, would provide a forgiving and light weight option.
73 Peter
This!
I have a Decathlon Lakeside 600 Carbon Travel pole. This collapses to 41cm and weighs 322g. As Peter says, you must remove the top 2/3 sections as they are very slender. But the remaining 5m mast is significantly more rigid than a similar Decathlon Caperlan 500 Travel. 5m fibreglass mast. The Caperlan 500 Travel weight 372g and collapses to 57cm.
If not, you’ll find out the hard way… I glued a bit of cord into the lower section and covered it with a bit of heat shrink.
The Decathlon Telescopic Caperlan Lakeside-5 Travel 600 Carbon Travel Pole is the one I have used during most of my HF activations in the last few years.
(As of today, it’s still available to order in the UK online)
I once did an unscientific comparison of the SOTABeams Carbon-6 with Neil @G0WPO on the summit of GW/MW-027 Moel y Golfa.
The only differences we could find was the print on the outside and that the Decathlon end screw cap was made out of metal instead of plastic. I once broke two sections of the Caperlan and replaced them with sections of the carbon-6.
I use mine with the SOTABeams mini-stake kit; I can’t think back the last time I had to use guylines. (the screw off cap helps here).
PS. I use mine with the MW0SAW EFHW as well as SOTABeams 40/20 link dipole; no issues.
I have used the SotaBeams 40/30/20 linked dipole with their Carbon 6 pole on several activations and haven’t had any problems. As long as your antenna system is on the lighter side, then I think you would be fine. I hadn’t actually realised that they don’t recommend it for use with dipoles. Ignorance is bliss!
My favorite antenna mast for some time now has been the Explorer 20 (finally a real alternative to the green Life’s a Breeze …).
Weight / Max. usable length / Min. length / Top diameter / Product brand
670g / 5.90m / 57cm / 5mm / Life’s a Breeze
730g / 5.90m / 55cm / 4.6mm / SB Tactical Mini
318g / 6.08m / 45cm / 3.6mm / Explorer 20
306g / 5.10m / 43cm / 3.8mm / SB Carbon 6
Yeah, those old heavy duty fibreglass flagpoles weigh a bit, but every inch is usable to hold a dipole up. I took one on my Aussie trip earlier in the year.
Thank you Heinz, a very informative reply.
I am using the # 6m poles supplied by the chinese sites, around 20 eur. The characteristics are similar to the mentionned Explorer 20. I had many many activations with these poles. It is my “standard equipment”. My typical antenna is a home made shortened efhw 40/20/10, length around 13 m, made of sotabeam wire, attached at the botton of the last element, installed as a sloper, or as an inverted vee. I´m very satisfied with the quality and durability.
73 de Pierre F5MOG
Interesting! Thank you for sharing. I don’t think that I have enough time left before my trip, but I might buy one for later use.
73, Colin
OK, I’ve ordered the Decathlon carbon travel pole. Thanks for the input guys.
Pierre @F5MOG I wish that I had known about the Chinese poles earlier! I may order an additional pole in the future.
73, Colin
