Bamboo Antenna Farm

[AJ1G]

While I was dumping brush at our town dump today, my next door reighbor roared up in his old Volvo wagon with a huge amount of bamboo hanging out of his tailgate that he was clearing out of his yard.  What he was getting rid of were plants with trunks at least 8 feet long and perfet diameters for makeing antenna supports, such as for an old fashioned cubical quad antenna.  I managed to snag about a dozen before I had to leave. I am going to work a deal with the neighbor that I will harvest whatever else is left to be cleared ( a LOT I think) and  I will haul away the brush in may trailer, which will sure beat his Volvo 745 street sweeper option.  There are also a lot of them growing in my yard that spread from his place. 

Anyone ever JS a quad or anything else interesting antenna wise out of bamboo poles?  Am thinking of bringing the poles up to Hosstraders and we could have a bamboo JS antenna buiilding contest.  How about a bamboo linear loaded mini beam for 20 or 40?  Phased bamboo verticals for 40?  Perfect for supporting a military VVHF ground plane for a PRC-25 on a field excercise!

[k3zrf]

Anyone ever JS a quad or anything else interesting antenna wise out of bamboo poles? 

Years ago I made a 2 element quad using bamboo poles for the support arms for 15 meters...it was great...looked js but being quite young at the time it was quite the icon for my presence in radio. I suggest keeping spares for those that eventially get worn by weather events not to mention gravity.

[Jim, W5JO]

Bamboo make great lighweight supports for Quads.  The problem here is ice loading in a winter storm, and high winds that tend to break them.  A Quad is a very good antenna, no traps or major problems.

Have fun.

[K1JJ]

Hi Chris,

Bamboo poles sure do remind us of the old days when we used it for quads, etc.  You can have some fun.

But, I look at it this way....  if it's worth doing, then it's worth doing right.

It will take you A LOT of time and energy to design, get the parts, put together, tune, erect, tune again and enjoy a quad with bamboo spreaders. And, as the guys suggested, it will have a limited life depending upon how fast the WX deteriorates it and it falls apart. Then ya gotta basically start all over, take it down, strip it, start all over. Probably just junk it like most do. I'd give it a year or two, tops.

But if you're really serious about building a 10-20M quad and preserving your investment in time and money for many years, then pick up some fiberglass poles from the quad antenna manufacturers and then roll your own. I have a friend from Chicago who has had a 20-10M 2el fiberglass spreader quad at 90' up for at least 15 years now - no problems so far.

Also, use very strong, quality wire. That is what breaks often on quads. The spreaders flex in the wind and puts a big strain on the wire.

I've built things working around cheap parts or materials too many times over the years and always regretted the outcome later - it's usually cheaper and faster to pay a little more for critical parts in the long run....

Let us know what you end up building, OM.

T


Pictured:
Bob, N1KW's 2el fiberglass quad on a 90' self supporter. Up for about 15 years now.

[AJ1G]

Thanks for the info all.  Tom - I know the stuff will not last long - so whatever I build will be for a short term just-for-fun experiment = perhaps to use in the field or put up on a temporary basis only.  I don't think the XYL would appreciate having a JS bamboo quad added to the landscape for very long, even though I would insist its just another garden ornament!  And if the antennas dont work out -I could always use the stuff to build a tiki-bar!