I like using my vertical trapped EFHW20/15/10 so I need 10mtr mast. I bought DX-Wire Mini which folds down to 65cm, so small enough to go into my holiday suitcase. If I decide to use full length EFHW4010, I double up top three sections and use it to support antenna as inv-V (well inv-7 more like)
On easier hills, especially when I plan longer stay I use DX-Wire 13mtr fibreglass mast. It’s long enough to hold short version of EFHW4010 (one with 34uH coild) as vertical.
Mike, I had a similar learning curve coming into SOTA a little over a year ago. After doing some research I moved away from masts all together and went to a throwline with weight. I can now get my antennas significantly higher in much less time. The throwline weighs less than a mast and takes less room in your pack. Of course this assumes the requisite tree has been provided to throw your line into…on most peaks in W0C-land I should think.
Matt
OK for those with trees - although I’m fairly new to SOTA (54 uniques) only 30% of my activations had trees of some sort. And all of those were 1-point hills
Rick
30% is good going for the UK. I don’t think any of my activations have had trees.
Hey Matt. I actually have a throw weight and line. Just haven’t used it much. CO being a high desert, there’s so many strange peaks. Once you get into the alpine world, which happens quickly here, trees start disappearing. haha. Received the Carbon 6 from Sotabeams. Amazingly light! I think I’ll probably stick with the mast unless I know absolutely sure there are trees via existing summit reports. I should be safe with most peaks up until around the 11.5K feet mark…then things will get sparse. I carry a few of those Nite Ize gear ties (18 to 36 inch, depending). Most of the time I can find something I can strap the gear ties & mast to and get it up super quick…so far. I carry guyline as well just in case. Still dialing in the kit.
I’m preparing for my second SOTA activation after the rainy season has stopped here in wintery Taiwan. Was in Decathlon today and looked at their carbon fibre fishing rods, but can’t really decide which one to buy.
Caperlan 6.3m: 170 g, 72.5 cm long collapsed
CAPERLAN LAKE SIDE-5 soft travel 8.8m: 528 g, 89 cm long collapsed
The height collapsed doesn’t matter, both will stick out of my backpack. The price for both is the same. The weight is certainly a thing, unless the extra 2.5 meters in length of the Lake Side-5 outweighs the burden of lugging an extra 360 or so grams. With 8.8m you could basically erect a 10m slightly sloping vertical. With 6.3 meters an inverted-V is the only option. Or is my logic wrong here?
Many summits in Taiwan feature heavy vegetation, so not much room horizontally and going up is better. I’m open to suggestions. Cheers!!! --Hans
In your case, I would go for:
CAPERLAN LAKE SIDE-5 soft travel 8.8m: 528 g, 89 cm long collapsed.
With it, you can have 1/4 wave GP on the most popular HF bands.
73,
Guru
I’d go for the 6.3m. Perfect for dipole or EFHW. But if you want a vertical then the 8.8m would be better.
Hi Hans,
In Spain I also use a pole from Decathlon. I don’t remember which one, maybe the 6.3 m long one. No problems so far and it does what it’s supposed to do.
I’d prefer the shorter one, since it will not stick so far out of your backpack, minimizing the risk of getting somehow trapped with the dense Taiwanese vegetation. But a weight of only 170g seems a bit too light to me…
If you use a center fed dipole, probably only a lower part of the pole is usable. No problem in this respect with an end fed antenna, when using a thin radiator wire.
I don’t recommend carbon poles for vertical antennas. Due to the partly conductive material, and because the radiator will run closely and in parallel to the pole, the antenna will be detuned (lower resonance frequency). I measured a strong detuning effect with another carbon pole, but I guess the ones from Decathlon are similar in this respect.
Therefore, when using a carbon pole, I always setup as inverted-V or inverted-7. Like that, the antenna doesn’t run in parallel with the pole.
73 Stephan
The 6.3m rod is one especially made for the Chinese market, so you won’t find it in western stores. I have had it in my hands and it really is very light, so even though it is carbon fibre I have my doubts about the sturdiness when bending: rod loading is 1 kg only.
The 8.8m one is only 16cm longer, so for me not a big deal. I’ll pass Decathlon this Saturday so I can take a look again. It’s rather difficult to compare stuff from Decathlon as their product information is usually incomplete or missing. Even their product numbers are often missing, also in-store. The staff is also not very knowledgeable: asked for the difference between the MH and NH product lines and they couldn’t tell. (MH is higher quality, so more expensive, it seems).
Anyway, that’s the fun of learning something new 
I have 3 poles in my collection:
5.4m and 7.2m carbon fishing rods for 17-18 USD each (ordered in China with AliExpress), and a DXWire 10m Mini fibreglass pole. Depending on summit time I have, goals of the activation and transport I use, I pick one of these.
The 5.4m pole is perfect when travelling by plane, or when SOTA is just a by-product on e.g. business trips, or when visiting touristic summits where I don’t want people to see what I carry, since it fits inside my small backpack. The 7.2m pole is good when weight is generally an issue, or when I don’t have much summit time anyway. The DX-Wire pole is my workhorse when I plan to go for DX, or spend a longer time on a summit and I want to maximise the number of QSOs. All poles are fit for either my trapped EFHW from 15-60m at various heights or for vertical wires of 5. 7 or 10m length which I match with a tuner.
73 Jens HB9EKO
