I had some quality spiderbeam antenna insulators.
I figured I could put a switch inside.
Buy custom switches.
This is the result:
Light.
Quick.
Resistant.
Elegant.
Enjoy !!
73 de Dani EA5M
15 Likes
Cool!
73 Fabio
Hello,
You can buy those at the spiderbeam shop.
https://www.spiderbeam.com/product_info.php?info=p4_isolateur.html&XTCsid=43fff03fdb553a2c2d0fc2801fd6c981
Gerald F6HBI
Hi to all, good idea Dani, another choice: mount the switch on a piece of PVC pipe.
73
2 Likes
Hello Dani,
nice idea, I have used some of these switches in EFHW and work great.
The only doubt I have is how they deal with rain and corrosion, but your proposal seems to protect them a bit.
Thanks for sharing. Un abrazo
73 de Ignacio
1 Like
Well done!
Great Idea.
VK5CZ …
Nice idea and nice alternative to plug and coupling - but as Igancio already said… I would have to think about wetness…
But you simply have more sunny days in spain 
73 Armin
Dani @EA5M, definitely doesn’t need to think much about the really rare possibility of a humid SOTA there in the southern mediterranean coast of Spain.
Quite a different situation here up in the Pyrenees area where a heavy snow shower is just taking place right now and so did yesterday, which made me cancel my SOTA attemp at the very access road.
73,
Guru
1 Like
Good idea, but I agree with the others to watch for humidity and corrosion.
I built a similar system. In my case, I used a latching switch that short-cuts a coil:
I sealed the switch and its contacts from behind with two layers of shrinking tube and glued the switch with two component glue to the PVC tube. Since the open part of the switch is usually directed downwards, it’s not in direct contact with the rain, but there is still the possibility of capillary action.
Until now I could not detect any problem with humidity, but time will tell.
Another problem I faced was the missing strain relief that I added after some months in use.
Furter the capacitance of the open switch has to be taken into account, specially for the higher bands. Therefore I propose to measure the resonance again after adding such switches, since the capacitance might be higher than a link with wires some centimeters apart from each other.
One can always look to improve solutions, that’s the cool thing with our hobby.
3 Likes
Of course you could also copy the idea used in the EFT-MTR 40/30/20 m dipole antenna for the 30 m link: http://www.vibroplex.com/techdocs/EF/EFT-MTRvp.pdf
… and make the link a little smaller, lighter and more user-friendly, e.g. as follows:
Solder a BNC straight PCB female receptacle onto a narrow and short piece of breadboard, as well as the antenna wires, then shrink it in watertight. The link can be opened and closed using a BNC shorting plug.
Recommendation without liability, of course 
I went with SOTAbeams type links for my 20/30/40 EFHW. Simple, light, and easy to Macgyver a field repair to get you through should anything happen since everything is exposed. KISS principle.
2 Likes