1. Open up the pole - I put painter's tape on each junction. Install a carabiner at the top to act as a pulley so I can raise and lower the antenna to change bands. Unsnarl the string and raise the pole, lash it. 15 - 20 minutes.
A lot here depends on the specific pole, of course.
With my MFJ "fishing pole" I don't tape the joints - I just pull them
snug. That seems to work as long as I don't put a lot of tension
on the pole: light rope and antenna help that, along with light
tension on the wires of the inverted vee.
My other telescoping mast is a Max-Gain fiberglass with 4' sections:
it is considerably heavier, and not quite as tall, but has latches
that hold pretty well (once I get them adjusted). Yes, I could go
taller and/or lighter using 6' sections, but with a full stack that
was a bit too far of a reach to push up the top ones without
standing on a stool or ladder.
I also found a telescoping squeegee handle at Home Depot with
flip latches rather than twist-locks on the sections, and it is
also easier to use.
Install a carabiner: I use one of the little "not for climbing" ones
with a short loop of string. Takes me a moment to wrap the
string around the pole and cinch it tight.
Untangling the string: that's why I went to the figure-of-eight
method. Saves a lot of time. (I got sunburned one day trying
to untangle a rope.)
You can also roll up the string with it already tied into a halyard,
possibly with the carabiner / pulley / eye ring already on it.
Bungee cords, Velcro® straps, tie wraps, or nylon webbing
help to lash the mast to a support in a hurry.
2. I don't use the pole anymore, I shoot a string over a high branch ... hopefully 50 feet or more -- using Long John pole-sling shot. Tie it off and hoist the antenna. still 15 - 20 minutes.
My throwing bucket is good to 50 - 60 feet. Next version will
be a more portable one in a 3 pound peanut butter jar or similar,
that will also hold the ball, with a screw-on lid.
For a simple trip with a single antenna, I'd use the braided throwing
rope to raise the antenna, but otherwise I use it to pull up a second
rope for the antenna.
3. Assemble the linked dipole. I store each band's elements in plastic baggies labelled for the band. Center feedpoint and 20 meters is one bag. 40 meters is next bag. 75 meters is a bag. Finally, I've never seen this done, but I also have bag for 80 meters ... short five-foot segments that allow me to do CW band. Since I usually operate 20-40-75 meters (in that order). I connect those segments, using insulated carabiners pre-attached to the respective segments in the baggies. 15 - 20 minutes.
If you regularly put up all the sections, then you might try
winding up the antenna with all the sections connected
together, and possibly with the strings already on the ends.
(You can always add more if it isn't long enough, but at
least have enough that you can reach it from ground level
once the antenna has been hoisted up in the air.)
I carry separate wire elements for each band, which allows
me to pick and choose which ones I want to use each time
I set up the antenna. But for specific purposes, I sometimes
leave a particular set of wires attached to the feedpoint (like
40m + 20m).
At one time I could get electric fence insulators that were like
plastic carabiners, and that made a good linked dipole, as all
the wire segments were normally left connected, but could be
removed if needed. Unfortunately they appear to be discontinued.
Otherwise a short piece of rope is all that is needed to join
the wires mechanically.
While having separate 75m and 80m sections on a linked
dipole isn't uncommon, my approach is to attach the end
rope several feet back from the end of the wire, put a
plastic clothespin on the end, and use that to fold back
the end of the wire to tune the antenna across the band.
4. Pull out 75 feet of coax, unsnarl it and attach to feedpoint, hoist antenna. 10 minutes.
The coax in my dipole kits is permanently attached to the
center insulators, saving some weight at the feedpoint.
Generally it is 30 - 50 feet, and I can extend it if needed.
Again, learning to avoid the untangling time will help.
Actually, the figure-8 approach doesn't work as well with
RG-58 coax, as it is stiffer and tends to take a set when
left rolled up that way. You might get one of the spools
for rolling up power cable and wind the coax on that.
5. Take string, unsnarl it (have to try that figure-of-eight trick) and and attach 25 - 50 foot on each end of the antenna, find a suitable tree to tie it off so vee ends are well above ground level. 15 - 20 minutes.
My guideline is that antenna wire + end rope should be at least
twice the height of the mast, to maintain a 120 degree minimum
angle on the inverted vee. That assumes it tie it off at ground
level using the full length. My target is to get the wire ends up
half the height of the mast, which means the rope would need
to be at least as long as the antenna wire (generally only an
issue on 80m).
6. Check antenna with my Rig Expert AA-170. One advantage of the linked vee is being able to get under 1.5 SWR, and therefore not need external tuner on various bands, connect coax to rig and power up the rig. 5 minutes
Have you ever had a case when you checked the antenna
and found you needed to make adjustments? How do you
do that if the dipole lengths are set?
One of my objectives was NOT to need an analyzer or a
tuner when operating portable. There have only been
rare instances when I haven't been able to use a pre-cut
dipole with out adjustment: the SWR curve might not
be perfectly centered, or as low as I might like, but it
still was capable of making contacts.
So, yes, it is good to know that the antenna is working,
but if my rig has an SWR meter, that is good enough.
Not that there aren't other ways to speed things up,
but those are the ones that I have found worked for me.