Page 1 of 8 - 40 metre vertical

City dwellers and portable 40metre Vertical.

This is an easy to erect vertical antenna. It uses a lightweight fiberglass fishing

pole as a mast and 300 ohm twin feeder as the radiating element.

Great for city dwellers and small spaces - The vertical polarization cuts out
masses of man made electrical noise and QRM, a blessing for city dwellers in
this digitally noisy age.

At my QTH, a city location, local QRM dropped from an awful s8, to an

astonishing s0 on 40 metres, with this antenna.. I was amazed by the difference,
and grabbed a recording of this dramatic change and decided to document this
antenna. Listen to the difference on youtube at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVmG5fcEcvI
Page 2 of 8 - 40 metre vertical

The antenna has great portability –The vertical extends or collapses in less than
a minute.

DO NOT USE THIS ANTENNA WHEN ITS WINDY.

This project started when I bought a 9 metre long glass fibre fishing pole, known
as a 'squid' pole, on ebay. The 'squid pole' is fiberglass, about 42mm diameter at
the base, extending to a slim 7 or 8 mm at the tip. Note: carbon fibre rods are not
suitable for this project.

The pole is made of tapering hollow sections, about 7 sections altogether. These
sections slide into each other for storage, or slide out, into a hand tightened,
compression fit mast, of a full 9 mtrs in length, that can be held in one hand. The
weight is less than a kilogram.

Thef inalsect i
onoft his‘mast ’isnothol l
ow,andt aperst oa slim 7mm diameter,
suitable only to support a light vertical antenna. The squid pole sections collapse
down into the first section, leaving a tube about a metre long when not in use.

The tube is sealed with a large rubber bung when closed. At the base of this first
section, a screw on cap allows access to the individual sections .

The tube is just the support for the vertical antenna. The antenna itself is made
using 300 ohm twin feeder ribbon cable.

The ribbon cable antenna attaches to the tip of the last section of the mast, using
a strip of electricians tape. This is the only place where the antenna is attached
until the mast is fully raised.
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Once the mast is fully raised, a second strip of tape holds the ribbon cable to the
bottom of the mast. The whole operation from antenna down to antenna up takes
less than a minute !

As the mast sections are raised by hand, and locked into place with a twist of the
wrist, the ribbon cable will gently spiral aroud the mast without difficulty as seen
in the first picture in this article.

It is only necessary to anchor the bottom of the ribbon cable at the bottom of the
mast, with a second strip of electricians tape, once the mast is fully raised.

Note. An extra three centimeters or so of antenna height can be gained by fixing

the ribbon cable a few centimeters above the mast tip as in the picture above.
Every little helps !
Page 4 of 8 - 40 metre vertical

The radiating element.

As seen already, I used lightweight 300 ohm ribbon feeder for the radiating
element.

The element is shorted at the apex but open circuit at the bottom of the pole. The
electrical circuit of the antenna looks like this :

A 10met r
el engt hofnonsl ot t
ed‘ TV’typer i
bboncabl eisusedast heradi ati
ng
element. This is shorted at the top end only. Terminate the bottom end in two
4mm crimp or banana sockets as per the diagram above.

By using 4mm socket connectors on the ends of the radiating element,

connection via banana plugs allows fast assembly, and easy dismantling of the
antenna system. It also allows the antenna to be multibanded .

Leave one end of the radiator unconnected for use on 160 to 40 mts. For use
from 30 mts to 10 mts the radiator is shorted at the bottom using a banana plug
link as shown in the diagram below :
Page 5 of 8 - 40 metre vertical

One end of the ribbon feeder radiator is left unconnected for LF use. (160 80 and
40 metres )

It may be preferable to short the radiator ends at the bottom, for use on the
30/20/15/17/10 metre bands.

A simple banana plug link makes this an easy task, handled at the base of the
antenna and within easy reach, see diagram below:

The 50 ohm coax cable feeder centre conductor is connected to the radiating
element.

The coax cable braid connects to a 10 metre counterpoise wire laid around the
ground.

The coax then goes to the radio via an ATU.

Feel free to experiment with counterpoise and grounding systems.

Page 6 of 8 - 40 metre vertical

Rasing the mast

Now the fun really begins. We will no longer refer to the squid pole as a fishing
pole, and hereon reference the pole as 'The Mast'.

Before operations commence we need to be able to keep the mast upright.

For portable operation I would mount a single U bolt to a vehicle roof rack. The
ultra light weight of the antenna system makes adpation easy and safe.

For home use I attached a standard TV mast bracket, and u bolts, from B+Q, to
my wall around 5 feet up:
Page 7 of 8 - 40 metre vertical

Again the ultra light weight of this antenna system would allow for a simpler
wooden bracket to be fabricated to hold the mast upright, but my woodwork skills
are worse than my antenna making skills ! The base of the mast remains at
ground level.

There is a golden rule to observe here. The U bolts must be hand tightened only.
This gives ample stability for light / portable use. Overtightening the U bolts will
crush the hollow mast sections.

Attach the mast bracket at a convenient point to work , around eye level.

When ready to use the antenna, remove the rubber bung and slide the final
section of the mast out, and through the U bolts. Attach the antenna ribbon cable
to the final section of mast with a twist of electricians tape:

Now raise the mast section by section.

Start by raising the final section until the next section appears, and hand tighten
the join with a simple twist of the wrist. Repeat this for all sections, until the mast
is fully raised.
Page 8 of 8 - 40 metre vertical

This is easily achieved due to the light weight of the mast and the tapering
compression fit of each section, and it is raised in under a minute. Dropping the
mast sections back down is just as simple.

Once the mast is erected, a final piece of tape may be placed at the bottom of
the antenna, to hold it in place.

The system is now ready for use. The results when compared to my horizontal
longwire were fascinating. The reduction in qrm was a godsend. It allows the
weaker signals to be heard once more, for the first time in years.

73 de g0ier
july 2010