Ed wrote:
I would recommend getting a glass fibre fishing rod and sliding copper
braid over it, then getting some thin glass fibre tape and resin and
taping over the braid. This is how some military vehicle whips are
constructed. You can then paint it if you wish.


Such an antenna would be excellent for my purposes if it is about 23
feet tall, except I need to break it down into three 7 1/2 foot sections
for storage inside an 8 foot PVC tube. I don't know if those long fishing
poles break down as such, do they?

Also, I do recall pricing such long poles in the past and the cost of
such may be approaching the cost of just buying an actual marine HF antenna
such as I wish to copy.


Ed

Check out Crappie or Panfish poles at a big online source like Cabelas.
You can get a (fairly light duty) collapsible 20 foot pole for $20.
They're Black Widow brand, and collapse to less than 4 feet.