Ive been doing some house painting this week so I bought an extension
handle at Home Depot. Its a colapsable aluminum handle that extends to
18 ft. It was on sale for $39.95. I dont think I could have bought the
tubing that cheap. I only saw a couple of the metal poles left all the
others were fiberglass.

Jimmie

Buddy of mine got something like that. Put a 2 meter whip/ground plane
on the top, and rigged a bracket to go under his tire -- for ARES,
field day, etc. Works great!

/paul W3FIS

On Sun, 9 Aug 2009 18:41:36 -0700 (PDT), professorpaul wrote:
Buddy of mine got something like that.

Got WHAT?? Just what are you nattering on about?

Geez! One google grooper replying to another google grooper.

It was an extension for cleaning a swimming pool. Great "extensible"
antenna mast. Sorry for the confusion...

/paul W3FIS

On Tue, 11 Aug 2009 15:06:33 -0700 (PDT), professorpaul wrote:
It was an extension for cleaning a swimming pool.

WHAT was "an extension for cleaning a swimming pool"?
No, wait. I give up.
It's killfile google groopers from now on......

On Aug 9, 9:41*pm, professorpaul wrote:
Buddy of mine got something like that. Put a 2 meter whip/ground plane
on the top, and rigged a bracket to go under his tire -- for ARES,
field day, etc. Works great!

/paul W3FIS

I think this one is going to become a portable HF antenna. When fully
extended the electrical connection between sections is not very
reliable so jumpers may be required.\

Jimmie

JIMMIE wrote:
On Aug 9, 9:41 pm, professorpaul wrote:
Buddy of mine got something like that. Put a 2 meter whip/ground plane
on the top, and rigged a bracket to go under his tire -- for ARES,
field day, etc. Works great!

/paul W3FIS

I think this one is going to become a portable HF antenna. When fully
extended the electrical connection between sections is not very
reliable so jumpers may be required.\

Jimmie

You are right.. there's no electrical connection between segments, and
no way to simply jumper it (if you put some sort of connector, it
doesn't telescope nicely).

However, what you CAN do is support a piece of wire from the top of the
pole down to the ground next to the pole, and that works pretty well.

Another convenient and inexpensive support is a collapsible crappie or
panfish pole. Cabela's has 20 ft collapsible rods for under $20 (or did
a year or two ago).

The challenge with all these sorts of schemes is holding the pole
upright. For a "no wind" situation, an orange traffic cone works fairly
well. You shove the pole into the hole in the top.

If you need to tolerate even a small breeze, you need something more.

You can also use multiple painter or swimming pool poles (which are
sturdier) to make a giant tripod. The handles from inexpensive paint
rollers make the appropriate threaded socket for the male thread on the
paint poles.

http://home.earthlink.net/~w6rmk/antenna/tripod.htm

On Aug 12, 12:46*pm, Jim Lux wrote:
JIMMIE wrote:
On Aug 9, 9:41 pm, professorpaul wrote:
Buddy of mine got something like that. Put a 2 meter whip/ground plane
on the top, and rigged a bracket to go under his tire -- for ARES,
field day, etc. Works great!

/paul W3FIS

I think this one is going to become a portable HF antenna. When fully
extended the electrical connection between sections is not very
reliable so jumpers may be required.\

Jimmie

You are right.. there's no electrical connection between segments, and
no way to simply jumper it (if you put some sort of connector, it
doesn't telescope nicely).

However, what you CAN do is support a piece of wire from the top of the
pole down to the ground next to the pole, and that works pretty well.

Another convenient and inexpensive support is a collapsible crappie or
panfish pole. Cabela's has 20 ft collapsible rods for under $20 (or did
a year or two ago).

The challenge with all these sorts of schemes is holding the pole
upright. *For a "no wind" situation, an orange traffic cone works fairly
well. You shove the pole into the hole in the top.

If you need to tolerate even a small breeze, you need something more.

You can also use multiple painter or swimming pool poles (which are
sturdier) to make a giant tripod. *The handles from inexpensive paint
rollers make the appropriate threaded socket for the male thread on the
paint poles.

http://home.earthlink.net/~w6rmk/antenna/tripod.htm

I have used adhesive foil for years on fishing poles.
Ideal for a back pack, un assembled and with foil at the ready!
Last time I saw them on Ebay was $10

On Aug 9, 5:17*pm, JIMMIE wrote:
Ive been doing some house painting *this week so I bought an extension
handle at Home Depot. Its a colapsable aluminum handle that extends to
18 ft. It was on sale for $39.95. I dont think I could have bought the
tubing that cheap. I only saw a couple of the metal poles left all the
others were fiberglass.

Jimmie

Another option at a similar price (and less when it's on sale) is
Harbor Freight's 3-section telescoping flagpole. It's three aluminum
sections, 16 feet (1/4 wave on 20 meters) when extended. Their stock
number is 92901-8VGA.

Cheers,
Tom

On Aug 12, 7:54*pm, K7ITM wrote:
On Aug 9, 5:17*pm, JIMMIE wrote:

Ive been doing some house painting *this week so I bought an extension
handle at Home Depot. Its a colapsable aluminum handle that extends to
18 ft. It was on sale for $39.95. I dont think I could have bought the
tubing that cheap. I only saw a couple of the metal poles left all the
others were fiberglass.

Jimmie

Another option at a similar price (and less when it's on sale) is
Harbor Freight's 3-section telescoping flagpole. *It's three aluminum
sections, 16 feet (1/4 wave on 20 meters) when extended. *Their stock
number is 92901-8VGA.

Cheers,
Tom

Looks like the sections fit together better than what I found too. I
was thinking of building a 5/8ths for 10M. This would certainly get me
almost there.

Jimmie