I do a bit of wild / ultralight camping with a mate of mine and have been thinking about antenna solutions when up on the hills. I got to wondering, if I had a small QRP CW rig in my bag, but no way of setting up an antenna, would the metal tent pole tune up for emergency use ? Imagine you are caught in a snow storm on top of a mountain and have to get into your tent quickly......
My tent has a single folding aluminium lightweight pole, about 9 feet long, that arcs from one end to the other, im sure a Z Match type tuner would tune it up ok.... although it wont be particularly resonant so close to the ground and being so short. But who knows ? You only need one person to hear your distress call.
So if any of you are off camping, be sure to give it a try and report back.... im off in a few weeks hopefully to North Wales and will give it a little try. Possibly worthwhile as an experiment.
My tent has a single folding aluminium lightweight pole, about 9 feet long, that arcs from one end to the other, im sure a Z Match type tuner would tune it up ok.... although it wont be particularly resonant so close to the ground and being so short. But who knows ? You only need one person to hear your distress call.
So if any of you are off camping, be sure to give it a try and report back.... im off in a few weeks hopefully to North Wales and will give it a little try. Possibly worthwhile as an experiment.