Super Heavy Duty 14m Fiberglass Pole

THE POLE POSITION:

One of my pet peeves is seeing hams spend thousands of dollars on their radio, skimp on their antenna and spend only pennies on their antenna pole/mast.

Because I am only using wire antennas, I prefer fiberglass (fg) poles over aluminum masts. Fg poles offer the lowest price per foot (or meter) for elevating wire antenna.

Normally I recommend not using a pulley and rope at the top of fg poles because the poles go up and down so easily; ropes and pulleys only add unnecessary weight.

Well this only applies to the Spiderbeam 12m and 18m poles. The Spiderbeam 22m and 26m fg poles require standing on a ladder to raise them (see photo the right), and when working alone, I can only raise them about 14m. I do not have the strength to raise any higher.

In this picture, you see my shortened 26m fg pole raised to a height of 11 meters. When fully extended, it will be about 14 meters (about 46 ft.) high. The top 6 segments of the pole were removed, leaving a very hefty 18m pole when fully extended. I didn't have the strength to raise it any higher.

The pole is not currently guyed, but a guy belt is mounted about 4m down from the top. Since my QTH is well protected from wind by mountains and forest in all directions, I will only use one level of guying.

Hopefully I can get a helper soon to help me push it the rest of the way up.

New Fiberglass Pole

As seen in the photo on the right, the pole is mounted up the hill about 40 meters (125 ft.) behind the house.

I must still measure it to see how high it really is. I extimate 45 to 50 ft.

The coax run is about 80 meters (abt. 260 ft.).

PREPARATION:

The pole is strapped to a very hefty piece of gavanized steel "angle-iron."

Several short strips of rubber garden hose are slit in their length, then slid over the two sides of the angle iron to protect the surface of the fg pole.