NEW "MINI"-FIBERGLASS POLES:

 

NEW in 2021:

 

Spiderbeam has announced 2 new

"Mini" Fiberglass Poles

that will revolutionize  SOTA  and Traveling-Ham Operations.

 

 

Rugged, High Quality Telescoping Fiberglass Mini-Poles. 

Perfect for Traveling Hams 

who demand Top Reliability.

Small enough and light enough

to fit in your suitcase.

 

Pictured here is the Aerial-51 "404-UL" 40m OCFD antenna on the 7m Mini.  It mounts at the junction of the top two segments.  (6.3m (21 ft.) height)

 

Note: Photos of the 10m Mini-Pole at bottom of page.

 

PRELIMINARY  INFORMATION

 

            Note: US prices are for Spiderbeam-US; for customers in Canada and USA - ONLY.

 

The wall thickness of these poles varies from 0.7mm (.027 in.) on the upper segment, increasing in thickness towards the bottom, to 1.4mm (.055 in.).  Exact thickness may vary slightly due to production variations.

 

These two new fiberglass poles are built with the same quality and ruggedness that has made Spiderbeam the leading provider of lightweight telescoping poles for the Amateur Radio Community. 

 

Unlike most competing products, these Spiderbeam Mini FG Poles have a hollow top segment which accepts wires up to 4mm (OD); Spiderbeam's CQ-532 (standard) wire fits easily.  This enables using the entire length of the pole to support a wire vertical with a hidden wire inside.

 

Like all other Spiderbeam Fiberglass Poles, Spiderbeam maintains a stock of all spare parts for these poles.  So, in the unlucky event that your neighbor runs over your pole with his tractor, you can easily get replacement parts.

 

Optional Travel Bag:

Spiderbeam also offers a heavy-canvas carrying bag for transporting these Mini poles.

 

AVAILABILITY:

  • Spiderbeam GmbH (Germany):  Avalible NOW!
  • Spiderbeam US (Tennessee):     Available NOW!

GALLERY:

 

The 10m Mini-Pole in ACTION:

 

 

An Aerial-51 Model 807-UL

on the 10m Mini Pole

 

It is difficult to see the details because the wire used in the 807-L is quite thin.

 

The BALUN is mounted at the junction of the 3rd and 4th pole segment from the top.  

 

This places the wires which exit from the center of the balun at about 8 meters (25 ft.) above ground.

 

The pole is unguyed; there is no wind today, and we have very little wind here ever, due to the mountains on all sides.

 

For typical installations, it would be better to pull the legs of the antenna more to one side, and then guy with a single 2mm Kevlar guy rope at the height of the balun, pulling the pole back into the vertical position.  See drawing below.

 

 

Here we see the dipole legs bent slightly out of the straight-line plane, with a thin guy rope pulling the pole back into the vertical plane.

 

Despite wearing thin leather gloves while engaging the friction locks between segments, I chose to use Coroplast Tape* to secure the top 4 segments.

 

REASON:  these top few segments are so thin that it is difficult to apply enough force to secure the friction lock.  No tape was used below the BALUN.

 

*Coroplast Tape is a special tape which does not use glue.  It uses self-adhesion. 

 

The long end of the 807-L is only about 2m (6 ft.) off the ground.  This was due to the location of the antenna.  The short end is about 6m (19 ft.) high.  With the BALUN just 8m high, the resonance of the antenna is about 70 kHz lower on 80m than it is at 12m height (ends 8m/6m high).

 

As a reslult, all bands are resonant a little lower than at 12m height.

 

Tip for mounting a BALUN to the Mini-Pole:  HERE

 

Special Tape (non-adhesive) for securing the sections:

 

"Coroplast" Tape

 

A special tape made of Polyvinlchlorid, (PVC), that is self-adhiesive, and does not use any glue.  

 

I purchased it on Amazon. 

Each roll is  15mm (⅗ in.) wide and 10m (33 ft.) long.

LINK:  Coroplast Tape

 

I have also seen it listed on ebay.