Technically not a SOTA question, but what group of people
will have more experience with these fishing poles in this application than
here!
I’m planning a covert antenna for home use that I will leave
retracted down by day and push up at night.
To do so I will potentially have the fishing pole up (low)
24/7 outside.
What are these poles like for resisting UV and soaking up
water?
I had a commercial antenna way back once that had a really
strong (when new) fibreglass section to isolate it from the mast, probably 4 or
5mm thick. It turned to powder from the UV and you could crumble it with your
fingers.
Howe about one of these depending on what you want to put on top antenna wise goes up to 5m made of ali.
Funny you should say that so how do people get away with fibre glass poles in hex beams there exposed to elements and rain and heat and etc, these poles must be far more UV resistant than cheaper poles.
Or you could buy quality ali poles that slot into each other easy take up and down.
plenty of choice out there
a good point Karl about the hex beams. Maybe coatings have moved on a lot since the 80s
The disguised antenna will also have fishing pole arms too, so that kind of answers my own question! Overlooked that. If antenna lasts, the mast should last as long in theory.
Roller extension is interesting.
I used to have a nice 3 section light ali telescopic mast that would have been perfect. I seem to have lost it, (Or loaned and never returned) as I would never sell anything mast related. It’s physically impossible to own too much ali tubing!
I have a G5RV doublet supported at the centre by 8 metres of GRP fishing pole. It has stood in place since 2004, I took it down for inspection this year and it is still in good condition - mind you, I lost the top two sections several years ago in a gale that brought down a couple of conifers in a neighbours garden and that small loss has reduced its DX capability!
As long as the coating is in good condition UV should not affect the pole, and if necessary you can occasionally get a spray can from your local Halfords and spruce it up a bit! Anyway, if it spends a lot of time retracted the UV can only affect the bottom section.
In three year’s i have got through about seven poles all fiberglass all snapped with the wind
i went for for the more expensive variety but it made no differance thay are still rubish when
it comes to high wind’s but i do live 1000ft asl on west coast and the jet streem is very unforgiving
so in high wind i have to take it down but otherwise thay are ok, carbon fiber ones if you get a
good one can be made resonant with a bit of fettling
End of 1999, storm “Lothar” knocked down 10 million trees in HB9. On DM/BW-101 Hohentwiel (15km from here) wind gusts reached 272km/hr. No wonder my fishing pole antenna broke into pieces as well.
I then replaced it with the same 10m type. It survived all the storms since then and is still doing fine at age 15: Error 404 - Page Cannot Be Found
I have had one in my yard for 3 years and it still seems ok here in the heat of summer etc.
I take the bottom cap of every once in a while and a bit of water drains out.
Like Andy says if it breaks get another, pretty cheap “tower” really.
good luck with it all
Ian vk5cz …
I had a 9 metre fishing pole set up as a vertical as a home base aerial. After a year took it down and it was little worse for wear despite some gales from time to time.
They are relatively cheap and easy to replace.
My hex beam uses six five metre fishing poles and can,t see it falling apart to quickly.
This is exactly what i use for more than a year now!!!
I started with a 7m from ebay, i can send you link if you want, and then quicly moved to a 10m. I dint always fully extend the 10m.
Its super for a covert antenna! I used it for a 8 storey building in the center of london and it was great.
No problem with weather after a year out!
I got lineaffi (or something like that) with a long 35.5 foot wire and 9:1. I do have a longer wire too that i used it sometimes.
I have some light dx-wire and some very light from sotabeams (green army?).
Any questions, please let me know. H can post photos too.
73s
Edit: I always use them with a bit of a angle so imdont have to push them out a lot to keep them in place. Wind is not a problem.
Like the one hidden by the benches. I have a 10m pole I plan to use for a 20/40m dipole, that will drop into a wall mounted cup (literally) and when extended will be supported higher by a short section of pipe. The pole is black and the current silver one I am using strapped to washing rotary drier doesn’t really show at night.
Then I am hoping to build a cobweb for up to 17m deliberately to look like a rotary drier. Hopefully that will hide in plain sight by day and just push up at night. Just needs to be nice and light.
I already modelled up the centre piece just need to get it made. After the dipole though.
I just got myself a telescopic window cleaner from ALDI only cost £4.99 reduced from £10 for cleaning the windows. Goes up to 3m extended, made of aluminium though and may be a bit short for what you need.
I have only had it extended to about 2.5m max so far and worked ok cleaning the windows, seemed sturdy enough.
For £4.99 it didn’t snap like some of the other cheapo stuff they do.
I have an 8m SOTA pole attached to the Wife’s clothes post in the back garden. I was intended to be temporary but it has now a permanent fixture, been up fully erected for 3 years now. It supports a 12m Groundplane a homerew, heath robinson wire vertical.Surviving the typical UK weather and the pole still looks good.
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