Reddit mentions of Shakespeare TSP20 Six-Piece Wonderpole Fishing Rod, 20 Feet, Light Power

This. It is all about timing. During the day, when there are no solar storms affecting us, 20m tends to be open, and fairly well-used. You have to watch reports and then just spin the dial to see.


But yes, the bigger issue seems to be your set up taking so long. My portable setup takes 10 minutes tops. Get a pole like this that is light to carry, and put your antennas up quickly in an inverted V.


Even faster, attach a heavy object, like an adjustable wrench with a hole on one end, to the end of some paracord and toss it over a tree limb. Untie the wrench, and attach the line (with an egg insulator) to the middle of the antenna, then pull the paracord to lift the antenna into an inverted V. That takes about 2 minutes, mostly to unwind the antenna and power cord. Depends on how accurately you can throw the paracord. Using this method, you can leave the poles at home. Everything fits in a backpack.



You can get solar reports on these sites, among others:

• www.solarham.com
  
• www.spaceweather.com
  
  
  Edit: whoops, it looks like you already have a 20 ft pole, now that I re-read your post. Sorry about that. Yep, I'd leave the heavy larger pole. You shouldn't need it. I never take something taller than the 20 ft fishing pole, and get plenty of activity on CW. So to answer your question: lately, 20m and 30m have usually been Iclosed by sundown, often before. It has noticeably gotten worse over the last 6-12 months. But 20m is still used a lot during the day.

I think that has fiberglass main shaft and aluminum extensions.

You might look at fiberglass fishing pole like [Shakespeare Wonderpole](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FFQOSW/). Advantage is collapsed length is 4ft vs 8ft. I was looking at painters pole until realized that 8ft is annoying length to transport even in car.

The painters pole can hold more substantial antennas and would work better for DIY Buddipole or Yagi. The collapsible fiberglass poles are great for wire antennas.

I was going to recommend the Jackite 31ft fiberglass pole. Oddly enough though, I no longer see their standard black model listed on Amazon or their website. Very strange, because they were quite popular with hams. There are green and orange colors still listed on their site though.

If 20ft will get the job done, this is a good option, and a quarter of the price.

Shakespeare TSP20 Six-Piece Wonderpole Fishing Rod, 20 Feet, Light Power https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FFQOSW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_zAhkDbNR2QW66




20feet for $35

You can try pole fishing to get the distance, here’s a link, https://youtu.be/zIlPrOBedLI there are some that break down, don’t know where they are sold at

Here’s a rod Shakespeare TSP20 Six-Piece Wonderpole Fishing Rod, 20 Feet, Light Power https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FFQOSW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_-1eEDb97PHF9W

I'll second the idea of using a telescopic fishing pole. One of my portable shortwave antennas uses a Shakespeare TSP20 as a mast. To that I added a DIY magnetic mount for use on my car. Use fairly small wire. This 20' pole is so thin at the tip that it will sag with much more than 22 AWG stranded and insulated wire if strung vertically. The antenna goes up or comes down in a couple of minutes. The price for the TSP20 is a little high now. I paid Amazon $7.00 less for one a year ago.

Here is a video of the telescopic 20' whip in action.

The 20' pole is a Shakespeare Wonderpole. Funny how most of the Amazon review are not in regard to fishing.
https://www.amazon.com/Shakespeare-Six-Piece-Wonderpole-Rod-20-Feet/dp/B000FFQOSW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1484532531&sr=8-1&keywords=wonderpole

The Sotabeams pole is 33' fully extended, and 26.5" compressed. There are some other comparable poles on the market, but most in this price range don't compress this short.

http://www.sotabeams.co.uk/compact-light-weight-10-m-30-ft-mast/

Fiberglass telecoping pole + two wires meeting at a feedpoint insulator. This will allow you to configure an antenna as a dipole for US stations or a vertical with a single elevated radial for DX.

If you want a solution on the cheap look at one of these: https://www.amazon.com/Shakespeare-TSP20-Six-Piece-Wonderpole-Fishing/dp/B000FFQOSW

The 20ft fishing pole is rigid enough to hold a very lightweight wire dipole at about 15ft.

My favorite portable antenna is the single radial vertical though. A vertical with a single elevated radial will perform like a dipole at high radiation angles (regional propagation) and be nearly omnidirectional. In the direction of the single radial it performs like a vertical with 120 buried radials and will allow excellent DX reception too.

If you go with 20ft pole this would allow a vertical element ~17ft and a 17ft radial elevated 3 feet above the ground at the feedpoint. Then you can stake the pole into the ground and extend the radial at an angle towards the ground. The radial would be mounted with a light insulator (like a plastic tube from a pen) at the end of the radial with a rope leader that gets staked into the ground. For the feedpoint, mount the wires to a chassis box female BNC or SO-239 connector. Then you just need ~10ft of RG58.

Regionally they're called Crappie or Bream poles (bream pole is a southern thing), also called Kite Poles.

Here's the 20' model for folks in the US. Not sure if they'll be as easily found in other countries for that low a price.

So couple things here. As far as the mast collapsing to "reasonable size" is very open ended. To me in my big SUV 6 foot is reasonable. So someone in a Toyota Yaris, 6 foot is not so reasonable. :-)

While hanging a wire from a tree might be feasible in some area's in others it isn't. (Ask me why I bought a buddipole to use portable in Las Vegas hahaha)

You might want to look into a crappie pole, I found a 20 footer on Amazon that collapses down to like 39 inches. It's less than $29.00 and the first two 5 star reviews are about using it for a wire antenna support. (http://www.amazon.com/Shakespeare-Six-Piece-Wonderpole-Rod-20-Feet/dp/B000FFQOSW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1464930121&sr=8-1&keywords=telescoping+crappie+pole) Then you could either use it for a low inverted V or even a sloper type antenna. While you may not break any distance records with an antenna this low, it will be better than no antenna.

Good luck and let me know when you are headed out this way and maybe we can try a QSO on VHF/UHF and maybe even try HF. I laughingly talk to a neighbor of mine on 6/20/40M anytime I hear him on as he is all of 1 mile away. :-)