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That's right - feast your eyes. You're looking at the words of the proud owner of a brand new Buddipole mast. If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you probably already know that I use my Buddipole pretty often. In case you don't believe me, here's some of the evidence, from since the beginning of the year only, that has appeared in other places on my blog (it's easier to see in some pics than others):
So, why a new mast? If you read my post on my attempted Mt. Rainier activation for NPOTA, you can see the headaches my old one caused. Basically, it broke. Not like snapped in two broke, but more like won't stay up broke (no snickering allowed...) Luckily, my YL, having midnight visions of me driving off a mountain, had decided to check the NPOTA Facebook group to make sure I didn't, in fact, fall off the mountain. This meant that when I got home, she wasn't surprised to hear me say "is it cool if I buy a new mast?"
When the new mast came, I was pumped, because Buddipole has changed the design since my version, and it is a LOT better. What made the old design wear out? Basically, the old design used a threaded ring that would squeeze a plastic ring to loosen or tighten the fit between the mast sections - the exact same way the drain on your bathroom sink connects all those trap pieces together!
While this isn't a bad design, it's easy to see how after hundreds of trips up and down, the metal would grind away at that plastic ring, causing some parts to stick, others to never get tight, etc. Here's what tightens each section on my old mast:
While this isn't a bad design, it's easy to see how after hundreds of trips up and down, the metal would grind away at that plastic ring, causing some parts to stick, others to never get tight, etc. Here's what tightens each section on my old mast:
Another thing I learned with the old design, was that if something was just a little loose, and the wind spun the dipole, it would loosen and tighten the threads on these sections - I only had it happen enough to make a section drop down once, but I'm sure it caused unnecessary wear on these parts.
Before you think I'm busting on the design - don't! It gave me a lot of faithful service, and part of portable operations is accepting that fact that when you thread things on and off, put things up and down, and otherwise move things that were really intended to be sitting still, things will wear out. Based on the pictures from the buddipole web site, I thought the new design looked better - when it arrived and I had it in my hands, I was like - oh yeah baby, that's the good stuff.
The new clamping mechanism is much sturdier, and it uses a big thumb screw which is waaaay easier to tighten and loosen. Also, because this is a clamp that is external to the mast, rotational forces from wind, etc. on the mast won't act to loosen them - awesome!
So, side by side comparison? Other than the much improved clamping mechanism, the new mast is just slightly longer when collapsed, because of the larger clamps, but that's not a big deal because it still fits in the original bag.
As an interesting note, even though it's longer collapsed, the new mast is actually slightly shorter when extended, than the old one (but only by a couple inches):
Considering how short the mast is when compared to something on a tower or in a tree, I don't think these couple inches will make or break the deal for any of my contacts.
Technically, there is also now a longer mast available from Buddipole that extends to 18', which I really contemplated. If you've seen how I pack my bags however, you could see that the longer mast doesn't fit my packing arrangement. For trips where I am driving however, (which are actually more often than the trips where I fly.) It would be nice to have a longer mast.
Technically, there is also now a longer mast available from Buddipole that extends to 18', which I really contemplated. If you've seen how I pack my bags however, you could see that the longer mast doesn't fit my packing arrangement. For trips where I am driving however, (which are actually more often than the trips where I fly.) It would be nice to have a longer mast.
That thought rolls right into my next scheme. My original mast is now in the metal recycling except for one part - the little threaded adapter for the tip. That part actually just had a small set screw, and it fits over something that is 3/4" in diameter. I'm now eyeballing some masts from a specific supplier (I won't name names unless I actually buy one and can vouch for it) because they have a 3/4" top section that I could put this part on, and they have models that are as tall as 50'. I probably wouldn't go with one quite that big, because fully collapsed I'm not sure it would fit in my car. they do have models that would fit nicely however, that are still in the range of 40'. I start to drool when I think about the potential to actually get a portable antenna that high in the air when there are no trees around...
Final thought - If you don't currently use a Buddipole and you're thinking about getting one, I do strongly recommend using an analyzer to tune it. The Buddipole does come with a "cheat sheet" for how to set it up, but because of the variables involved, you're rarely going to hit the sweet spot by just using the tuning chart - in fact sometimes it can be off significantly, especially on 40 meters where a short antenna with loading coils is very narrow banded. If you don't have an analyzer, I can strongly recommend the RigExpert AA-54 because it is the one I use. You can get it from Amazon, or you can also now get it from my newly created affiliate store which is always available from the menu - check it out!
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