[TenTec] fiberglass poles question

[Rob Atkinson, K5UJ]

The fishing ploles that MFJ and one or two other places sell are okay under 
the right circumstances.  I am using two of the MFJs to hold up the center 
and one end of a cloud burner dipole and I plan to write an eham review 
after they have been up for a year or so.  I want to see how they hold up 
through a winter here (they have been up since Memorial Day (end of May this 
year).   I anchor them by driving in to the ground 8 ft. metal fence posts, 
the kind that are supposed to hold barb wire or chicken screen and are 
stamped in a u shape (looking down on one from above when it's in the 
ground).  I drive in the fence posts about 2 feet and clamp the poles to 
them with 3 spaced out hose clamps for each one.  the poles are so light 
weight this is enough to hold them.  I am using them because my lot is so 
small I don't want more vertical metal than I have to so as to not cause 
problems with my vertical metal antennas.   the friction that holds each 
fiberglass mast section is enough--no added clamping needed.  they flex a 
lot without breaking but you will feel like you are using a wet noodle to 
hold up your wire when you use them--they bend and blow around a lot in the 
wind.  OTOH that's better than the wire snapping in two and they always 
return to static position.  The top 2 or 3  three foot sections are not 
useable because they are so thin they won't holed any weight.  I had to 
clamp my center insulator down about 6' from the top so it's only 27' up.  I 
am using a flattop so the wire, 88' of no. 14 stranded is going out 
horizontally & helps hold the pole which is really just there to hold the 
wire away from my house (aluminum siding) and hold the feedline.  the 
feedline is 600 ohm open wire so I just have a porcelain dogbone up at the 
feedpoint.  the fiberglass means I don't need to stand off the feed.  one 
end of the flattop (center fed) is held by a tree (my one tree I can use) 
the other end is held by another MFJ pole.  this had to be guyed in 3 places 
to keep it from bending over too much from the wire tension.  Also the 
dacron coming from the ant. insulator is attached to the pole 3 sections 
down from the top (9') and the bottom of the pole is boosted up 3' in the 
fence post to compensate and get the end up to 27' (the mfj poles are 33' 
long).

you could get more height by putting in say 20' of metal and topping that 
off with the fishing pole if you don't mind the 20' of metal pipe. now you 
would be into probably digging a deeper hole and maybe setting the pipe in 
concrete and taking the pole down would be harder.  I just undo the hose 
clamps and down she comes when I want to do ant. work.  Forget about 
collapsing the mast sections.  when you extend them and really pull them 
tight and they stay that way for a week or more, then they are set and they 
aren't collapsing (at least I did not have the strength to collapse them :)

This guy below sells heavy duty fiberglass--I have not tried his poles yet 
but I plan to when I extend my dipole to make a horiz. loop:

K4TMC
Henry Pollock
P.O. Box 1932
Raleigh, NC 27602-1932
k4tmc at aol.com

he had ads in QST for fiberglass poles.   you might write him and ask about 
his poles.

hope this helps & 73,
Rob
K5UJ

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