On Apr 9, 9:41*am, " wrote:
A friend of mine planted a bamboo shoot in his side yard, now it is
taking over his and his neighbors yards. *Told me to cut down all I
want. *Had planned to use it for bean poles and plant supports, then
it occurred to me: *quads, moxons, spiderwebs -- this stuff is really
strong and stiff. * Some canes are 12-16 feet long.

Anybody have experience with bamboo, especially used as semi-permanent
end supports for dipoles and inverted vs?

TNX
Paul KB1GEJ

Bamboo is making a resurgence. Not only might you find ideas in older
books, but newer ones as well. ARRL's 2008 "Simple and Fun Antennas
for Hams" details the use of bamboo for a wire antenna. On page 16 of
Chapter five, the author recommends using "vinyl electrical tape to
secure the wire to bamboo to make antenna elements."

In that article they are using it as a mast in an inverted-L wire
antenna. I could imagine using bamboo as spreaders for a folded
dipole, or as supports for a yagi or loop and just attaching wire to
the bamboo to create elements. Using a saw to create a notch in the
end of the bamboo would make it great for running wire across the
ends.

I wonder what the maximum support length for a piece of bamboo would
be? I would also be interested to see if someone knows of a way to
jigsaw the pieces properly and maybe use hose clamps to create
sections longer than 12 feet.

KC9PBU

Works Cited
Hutchinson, Chuck, and Dean Straw. Simple and Fun Antennas for Hams.
N.p.: The
American Radio Relay League, Inc, 2008. Print.