As I stated earlier, I use a 20 foot collapsible fishing pole for the support mast of the shortened vertical antenna. I wanted it to be self supporting, so it needs some sort of guying arrangement. I came across K6ARK’s youtube channel. Specifically his video titled SOTA/Wire Portable Telescopic Pole Setup. is the perfect solution. I made a few very minor changes, but the idea is the same. The photo below shows the end result.
For a good explanation watch K6ARK’s video:
The epoxy glue he probably used was good old JB Weld. That is what I used, and it works great. Another thing I did different was I didn’t use the “Figure 9’s”. Maybe I’m too cheap to buy them. Personally I like to use the good old taut-line hitch for my guy lines. Its actually an easy knot to learn. Here is a link to a youtube video on how to tie a Taut-line Hitch. My thinking is this, since I know how to tie a taut-line hitch, I can use any rope for a guy line. So if I lose one of my guy lines, I can just grab another piece of paracord and I’m in business.
Here is a closeup of the taut-line hitch:
One thing I do is once I have tied the taut-line hitch the first time, I don’t untie it. I just un-clip the carabiners from the mast and wind up the guy lines with the taut-line hitch intact. That way the next time I use the shortened 40 meter vertical, the guy lines are ready to go. Which is what K6ARK does with the Figure-9’s that he uses.
Thanks for the inspiration. I’m new at this and EFHW has been my go-to antenna for the past couple years. A couple days ago I decided to give vertical another try, so I built a version of this using leftover #18 wire from Lowe’s. The coil is #20 solid, insulated electric pet fence wire wrapped around a scrap plastic tube that was originally a shipping package for a different antenna. With it hung from a 20ft telescopic flag pole, and after two tries making some tuning adjustments, contacted Austria on 20m from Virginia.
-Gary (K4GRK)
Wow! That’s great Gary! Glad it worked so well for you.
— Mike