Thanks for sharing. I had been using almost the exact same setup since 2017. I used a speaker stand, took out the middle mast that holds the speaker, and then my painters pole fits perfectly in the middle of the speaker stand. I found that the dipole ends tied down the way you have it also acts as guys that helps the whole structure be more wind resistent and sturdy. I used simple tent stakes. My painters pole was closer to 25ft. when fully extended and I was using a fan dipole with a heavy center box so I had a little more weight at the top making my setup a little more precarious. But it does the job and it works just fine. I did my first winter field day with this antenna setup back in 2018. Cheers and 73!
I frequently start out wanting to use a different antenna, but I always end up using this dipole. It's too easy to ignore, and most of my work is 20M anyway, so why bother with anything else.
And I thought I'd done something original! I have a similar setup, but use the 23' Mr. LongArm pole. I carved the rubber grip to expose the hole at the base, and it slips snugly over a Vestil H-frame base, used for temporary fencing. I run a 40m dipole, ends secured by 5-gallon water jugs using bungees.
Nice setup. Home Depot sells a Mister Long Arm painters pole with three 8 foot telescoping sections that extends up to nearly 24 feet. I’ve used it as an inverted vee support like you are doing. It has a fiberglass lower section and two alumiunum upper sections. I also use the upper two aluminum sections strapped together with a jumper as a quarter wave vertical element for a twenty meter ground plane, and add four quarter wave wire elements as a counterpoise to make a nice ground plane vertical antenna. That would give you a nice low radiation angle pattern vice the high angle cloud warmer pattern of a very low inverted vee antenna. You might have to add a little more length to the top of the two sections to resonate it on 20, using a section of aluminum rod telescoped and clamped into the a hole drilled into the tip of the upper section. I’ve used the upper nominal four feet of a Hamstick antenna stinger and it’s ferrule which allows it to easily be adjusted to the proper length to resonate the antenna.
Nice setup. A bit of orange spray paint will change the color. I have a Tiki torch stake to put into the ground for antenna installation. I don't know if that will work as well as what you have. Anyway, this was a really great video. Thanks for sharing!
Additional comments - if you are running the inverted vee dipole arrangement, it would help the efficiency of the antenna to get the ends of the dipole up away from the ground by extending the length using non-conductive nylon line. This will, of course increase your “footprint” at your park set up. I always try to keep the far ends of an inverted vee dipole at least least six feet above ground. For your setup, I would add a couple of six foot pieces of PVC as end supports and guy each each of them vertical with sort lengths of 1/8 inch nylon braid rope. Home Depot sells 75 foot sections of that diameter braid in camo and various high visibility colors and wound on a handy plastic frame winding reel for about four bucks. Another comment - the quarter wave ground plane vertical using the Mr. Ground Plane 24 footer pole for 20 meters can also be used on higher bands up to 10 meters simply by shortening the the telescoping sections of the vertical radiator to the appropriate quarter wave length for the other bands, and breaking up the lengths of the counter poise wires into segments with insulators that can be progressively connected together with jumpers around the insulators to set up quarter wavelength radials for each band. Home Depot sells banana pin type SNAP connectors for about 4 bucks for 5 male/female pairs that are perfect for making up the jumper sections. 73 and good luck! Chris AJ1G Stonington CT
Hi Chris. I used to put this antenna up about 25 feet on a Spiderbeam mast, but the amounts of gear to haul and the setup time was too much for POTA. At least for me. I’ve actually gone smaller since this video with a SOTABEAMS mast. It’s fast to setup and it all makes contacts! 73…Kevin
@@radiostationad0im307 I’m not a POTA (ter) myself but do a lot of mobile DXing. I would think that a good mobile vertical antenna on the vehicle, or better yet, a large quarter wave whip (16 feet nominal length) vehicle mounted, and extended on site for fixed mobile operation would be as good or most likely better performer than a low inverted vee dipole or a a Buddipole shortened dipole on 20 meters, or what a saw a team of POTA ops using at one of my favorite fishing spots , Stanton Weir CT State Park (K6868) using - a shortened hamstick style ground mounted vertical only about 8 feet high with a number of on ground wire radials. Is there a POTA rule that one must use portable type antennas not attached to the vehicle?
No. The antenna elements are not running parallel to the mast, so little or no coupling. I have used this dozens of times with nothing but success. Like all antennas, there are a million variables that affect performance every time you use it. I need this to work well enough for a successful POTA activation. It’s never failed.
Good idea with the painter's pole. Thanks. VY2MJ 73. 😀
Some great suggestions to utilize parts alot of us already have laying around.
Thanks for sharing. I had been using almost the exact same setup since 2017. I used a speaker stand, took out the middle mast that holds the speaker, and then my painters pole fits perfectly in the middle of the speaker stand. I found that the dipole ends tied down the way you have it also acts as guys that helps the whole structure be more wind resistent and sturdy. I used simple tent stakes. My painters pole was closer to 25ft. when fully extended and I was using a fan dipole with a heavy center box so I had a little more weight at the top making my setup a little more precarious. But it does the job and it works just fine. I did my first winter field day with this antenna setup back in 2018. Cheers and 73!
I frequently start out wanting to use a different antenna, but I always end up using this dipole. It's too easy to ignore, and most of my work is 20M anyway, so why bother with anything else.
And I thought I'd done something original! I have a similar setup, but use the 23' Mr. LongArm pole. I carved the rubber grip to expose the hole at the base, and it slips snugly over a Vestil H-frame base, used for temporary fencing. I run a 40m dipole, ends secured by 5-gallon water jugs using bungees.
It's hard to be original in this hobby isn't it?
I don't even know what I just watched as this got recommended to me on UA-cam, but good job explaining it as I learned something 💪
Nice setup. Home Depot sells a Mister Long Arm painters pole with three 8 foot telescoping sections that extends up to nearly 24 feet. I’ve used it as an inverted vee support like you are doing. It has a fiberglass lower section and two alumiunum upper sections. I also use the upper two aluminum sections strapped together with a jumper as a quarter wave vertical element for a twenty meter ground plane, and add four quarter wave wire elements as a counterpoise to make a nice ground plane vertical antenna. That would give you a nice low radiation angle pattern vice the high angle cloud warmer pattern of a very low inverted vee antenna. You might have to add a little more length to the top of the two sections to resonate it on 20, using a section of aluminum rod telescoped and clamped into the a hole drilled into the tip of the upper section. I’ve used the upper nominal four feet of a Hamstick antenna stinger and it’s ferrule which allows it to easily be adjusted to the proper length to resonate the antenna.
Nice setup. A bit of orange spray paint will change the color. I have a Tiki torch stake to put into the ground for antenna installation. I don't know if that will work as well as what you have. Anyway, this was a really great video. Thanks for sharing!
Loved the video. Would you post a close up of the top of the pole with dipole center.
Thank you!
You're welcome!
Thanks
I like it
Additional comments - if you are running the inverted vee dipole arrangement, it would help the efficiency of the antenna to get the ends of the dipole up away from the ground by extending the length using non-conductive nylon line. This will, of course increase your “footprint” at your park set
up. I always try to keep the far ends of an inverted vee dipole at least least six feet above ground. For your setup, I would add a couple of six foot pieces of PVC as end supports and guy each each of them vertical with sort lengths of 1/8 inch nylon braid rope. Home Depot sells 75 foot sections of that diameter braid in camo and various high visibility colors and wound on a handy plastic frame winding reel for about four bucks.
Another comment - the quarter wave ground plane vertical using the Mr. Ground Plane 24 footer pole for 20 meters can also be used on higher bands up to 10 meters simply by shortening the the telescoping sections of the vertical radiator to the appropriate quarter wave length for the other bands, and breaking up the lengths of the counter poise wires into segments with insulators that can be progressively connected together with jumpers around the insulators to set up quarter wavelength radials for each band. Home Depot sells banana pin type SNAP connectors for about 4 bucks for 5 male/female pairs that are perfect for making up the
jumper sections.
73 and good luck!
Chris AJ1G Stonington CT
Hi Chris. I used to put this antenna up about 25 feet on a Spiderbeam mast, but the amounts of gear to haul and the setup time was too much for POTA. At least for me. I’ve actually gone smaller since this video with a SOTABEAMS mast. It’s fast to setup and it all makes contacts!
73…Kevin
@@radiostationad0im307 I’m not a POTA (ter) myself but do a lot of mobile DXing. I would think that a good mobile vertical antenna on the vehicle, or better yet, a large quarter wave whip (16 feet nominal length) vehicle mounted, and extended on site for fixed mobile operation would be as good or most likely better performer than a low inverted vee dipole or a a Buddipole shortened dipole on 20 meters, or what a saw a team of POTA ops using at one of my favorite fishing spots , Stanton Weir CT State Park (K6868) using - a shortened hamstick style ground mounted vertical only about 8 feet high with a number of on ground wire radials. Is there a POTA rule that one must use portable type antennas not attached to the vehicle?
Does the metal pole effect the ant.
I use 3 poles as a 20m vertical array.
No. The antenna elements are not running parallel to the mast, so little or no coupling. I have used this dozens of times with nothing but success. Like all antennas, there are a million variables that affect performance every time you use it. I need this to work well enough for a successful POTA activation. It’s never failed.
Great Video and presentation! How many feet is the pvc pipe I would like to try it out come field day thanks Sal KM4PPV!
Glad you like it! It’s about 24” with an interior diameter of about 1.5”.
Try running the tie-down threw small orange marker cones
I like that!