Squid Pole Support for Testing Antennas

Squid Pole support for the QTH and testing antennas

If you are building an antenna for SOTA or field activations or spending hard-earned cash on a commercial unit, it pays to test the antenna before you head out on a SOTA or field day activation. What a better way to test the antenna than to have it elevated on the pole at home with your test equipment or SOTA rig close by. By doing so you can replicate the pole height and the antenna shape with the telescopic pole fully extended. Of course the earth coefficient will be the X factor particularly when the summit is solid rock, there’s not much you can do about that. Putting the earth conditions aside you will be able to adjust the length and shape of your antenna for a low VSWR.

At my QTH I don’t have a convenient support in the ideal location and the XYL doesn’t appreciate me using a star picket on the front lawn. 😦 Gee it’s tough being a SOTA tragic. So I made a pole support from a 20 ltr bucket, a length of 50 mm conduit and a bag of ready mix cement.

Here it is. It has many uses, only limited by your imagination. You can use it for a field day deployment or as deck umbrella stand with a stealthy 2m or HF antenna on top, quiet the XYL will never know. On and yes its heavy!

Squid Pole support for testing antennas

Drop the squid pole in the tube and have fun testing and adjusting your antennas.

Squid Pole in place ready for action

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