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Reviews For: Spiderbeam HD 12m (40 ft) fiberglass pole

Category: Towers, masts, accessories, climbing & safety gear

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Review Summary For : Spiderbeam HD 12m (40 ft) fiberglass pole
Reviews: 6MSRP: 68.10 EUR
Description:
High strength professional telescopic fiberglass pole.
Fully extracted length (height)= 12m (40ft)
Transportation length 1.18m (3ft 10")
Weight = 3.3kg (7lbs)
Bottom diameter 55mm (2 1/6")
Top diameter 8mm (1/3")
Wall thickness 1.4mm - 2mm (1/18" - 1/12")
Number of segments 12
Pole material black fiberglass, UV protected
Specially reinforced multilayer winding.

Summary: Spiderbeam Heavy Duty fiberglass poles are perfect for building all kinds of wire antennas.
A single person can easily put them up within a few minutes. These are extremely strong poles, with a much greater wall thickness (up to 2mm!) than the usual "fishing rod" types. A special reinforcing winding technique - several layers of fiberglass are wound in alternating direction (criss/cross winding) - provides greatly increased lateral and linear strength. Stronger joints are achieved by a much larger overlap between the individual tube segments than usual.


Product is in production
More Info: http://www.spiderbeam.net/sb/product_info.php?XTCsid=dd441d78518dae06fd9929e62d23dcd5&info=p3_Spiderbeam%20HD%2012m%20fiberglass%20pole.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
2565
NO9E Rating: 2022-12-22
Good commbination of size and strength Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Now I own it for 10 years. As good as new. It does not need guy wires when attached at the bottom. It even held a 10m 2 el beam at half height in heavy winds. The top is wimpy for inv V with thick wire but good with thin wire.

Old review:
Its first use was in a rental house on Florida coast. The pole was attached to a railing in a widow's nest using bungee cords. It supported an inv L with some 20ft of sloping down wire. A few random length radials on metal roof and feeding via TV ribbon to K3 with tuner and balun. I could work almost anybody including CE and DL on 160m. Heavy winds bent the pole but not too much. No sign of any damage.

For its size and strength I consider the Spiderpole indispensable for portable work especially when natural supports are missing.

Most likely the pole would support an inv V with thin wires or a dipole with light feeder (TV line). It is probably too light for a dipole with a coax or thick wire but a stronger pole would have to be considerably heavier. Max Gain Systems sells sturdier poles but their 43 ft pole is over two times heavier and two times longer (collapsed).
K7CID Rating: 2022-12-22
Excellent build quality Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I own three of the 40' HD Spiderbeam masts. Two of these support my 40 meter dipole from the main mast (an Aluminum Spiderbeam mast). For my application I removed 4 of the sections on each mast. Very sturdy. Highly recommend.
M0TNX1 Rating: 2021-03-09
Just superb quality Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I've owned many fishing poles over the years to either a) fish with or b) build or support antennas with.
I've used them extensively on portable expeditions and was happy with them until one broke on GB2HI a few years ago.

I took a break from Amateur Radio but am now returning to the hobby and wanted to invest well in kit being of the mind that you 'Buy Well, Buy Once' after trying to do things cheaply in the past.

I'd often looked at the Spiderbeam poles in the past, in those times money was a lot tighter and I had to buy within my means. Time has moved on and I ordered a 12m Spiderbeam HD pole with clamp and guy loop. The guy loop isn't what what I was expecting, but it is ingenious being made of a ripstop style of material that is very well made. The pole? Wow is all I can say. Superb quality and NOT a 'crappie' style of pole. Very thick walls and it feels twice the weight of a 10m Fibreglass pole that many use for supports. I'll add an update when I support my first antennas with the Spiderbeam pole, but on first impressions, I won't be buying any other inferior products soon. The postage from Germany to UK was flawless and arrived in five days, the communication from Spiderbeam was excellent.
N6NRO Rating: 2019-07-17
Wonderful product Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is my first time giving a review of my ham radio equipment. I purchased the Spiderbeam HD 12m (40ft) pole (3 of them) about 2 weeks ago. The 3 poles hold up my Aerial-51 OCF Dipole. These poles go up easy and stay up. Just give each section a good twist and its going to stay in place. I can take down the antenna or raise it in under 5 minutes. I use clear fishing line (50lb. test) to guy it. When I'm in my RV I will simply take down one of the poles and take it with me lashing it to my ladder and attach an end-fed to it. The quality is wonderful and am now even thinking of the 18m version. This pole would be great for an HOA. Just put it up at night and take it down before the sun shines. My only recommendation would be to have it in grey instead of black. One more thing. Because the 12m gets me up there I'm getting many, many more contacts, including DX. John N6NRO
WV0H Rating: 2016-06-15
Stronger Than Expected Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I own several fishing pole type masts and this pole beats them all in the strength category. I purchased it from the US Spiderbeam distributor and pretty much got it in 3 days to Colorado from Tennessee.

The Jackites are lighter but this pole is considerable stronger (thus heavier). Shakesphere Wonderpoles are good but no match for height or strength of this beast. Owned the MFK 33 footer too but it is whimpy compared to this thing. The walls of this pole are thicker than most.

Having set up one for field day several years ago I plan on guying the mast along with the rubber hose clamp set as our FD operation was met with several collapsed mast experiences. The guy line is to be attached at the bottom of section 8 (at the 23 foot level). They count sections from the bottom up.

While heavy there is some flexibility to the mast which can either be a good thing or a bad thing depending on whether or not you need some tension in your transmission line or not. (PPD TL)

The end caps are friction fit and slide off if you carry the pole and bounce the sections inside while walking. A piece of gaffer's tape will take care of this.

The rubber banded clamp set was well worth the extra cost and some assembly is required. They give you 1 meter of rubber band and accompanying heat shrink tubing which you have to cut and shrink yourself around each clamp. It took me about an hour but was a bit meticulous in cutting the band and cutting 45 degree bevels in the ends to allow the heat shrink to "grasp" the tag end of the rubber band on the tag end of the hose clamp. Oh, BTW, the hose clamps are none like I've ever seen before. The band part doesn't have any cuts or grooves in them they are embossed and press with grooves, not a nit but an observation.

Since owning several masts from lightweight fishing pole types to the medium stiff Jackite, this pole is what I would consider medium-heavy duty in the telescopic pole division and would definitely buy another.
LY1DF Rating: 2006-10-15
Excellent portable mast Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I wish I had one of these masts few years ago! Small size when collapsed (1.18m that is 3ft 10") and the total weight of only 3.3kg (7lbs)makes it easy to take it with you to any trip. It has taken only two days to receive this after ordering (delivery from DL to G3). Do not mistake this with a conventional fishing rod - the 2mm wall thickness and 55mm (2 1/6") bottom diameter is good for most of the wire antennas you could think of - dipoles, verticals, deltas etc. This mast is excellent choice for portable operation and is a good value for money (the price is only 68 EUR or so now). So far I have tried this mast in the following operations/conditions:

2005 CQ WW CW Contest - J45A expedition, used for 80m vertical in extremely bad WX - strong wind and rain;
2006 CQ 160M CW Contest - J49W expedition, used as a central mast for 160m full size dipole;
2005-2006 - SV8/SV9 operation in Mediterranean region, dipoles and verticals for 40m-15m;
2006 - various operations in the mountains of North Wales (Snowdonia) - at extremely high wind speeds.
2005 - without the upper sections, used as a temporary vertical mast to carry portable beams for 15m-20m band.
This mast is currently used in my back yard as support for inverted L 80m band vertical or whatever wire antenna I decide to experiment that day.
Good news from manufacturer - due to high demand and popularity the MONSTER version (18m that is, 60ft)of the same mast became available this year. You can see it here:
http://www.spiderbeam.net/sb/product_info.php?info=p71_Spiderbeam%2018m%20fiberglass%20pole.html

Good luck in improving your portable operation results!

73 de SV1/LY1F
www.qrz.lt/ly1df