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Using sports oval light poles as an antenna on 160 metres At 28 metres tall, these poles are most definitely not portable. But your station is. You bring it to the pole, load it up and can get on the air with great results. A great thing about this approach is there is no direct electrical connection to the pole. Thus you don't have to shinny up the pole and hope there is an electrical connection to it. Instead you use a coupling loop supported on a telescoping pole against the pole. I'm not sure how much loss there is but most peoples 160 metre antennas have some degree of loss. The results seem to indicate that this one is better than most, especially for ground wave contacts (I haven't tried it for DX yet).   Introduction and 160 metre tests These videos describe the coupling loop. I demonstrate the antenna on a local 160m AM net. The next video discusses some improvements. The third video has more on the ground tuning unit used.   Use on 80m I suppose you can say it worked on 80m but it's probably not worth the trouble for most contacts, especially over short and medium distances. This is likely because most 80m contacts are short-skip involving high radiation angles. For that something like a half wavelength dipole or end-fed is probably a better performer. The pole might be better for DX working but I haven't yet tried it.   Driving a crystal set Getting back to medium frequencies and ground wave propagation, the pole did well when driving a crystal set. Increased capacitor values in the coupling box may permit operation on the amateur 472 kHz (630m) band as well. More about the coupling box here.   Calculating the height of a light pole It's easy, provided the sun is out and you're in an open area. This video shows you how.     Disclosure: I receive a small commission from items purchased through links on this site. Items were chosen for likely usefulness and a satisfaction rating of 4/5 or better.

Books by VK3YE Ham Radio Get Started (USA) Australian Ham Radio Handbook (Aust) Hand-carried QRP Antennas More Hand-carried QRP Antennas 99 things you can do with Amateur Radio Getting back into Amateur Radio Minimum QRP Illustrated International Ham Radio Dictionary Make your Passion Pay (ebook writing)   All material on this site (c) Peter Parker VK3YE 1997 - 2024. Material may not be reproduced without permission. Read privacy policy.