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« on: August 18, 2016, 0952 UTC »
Here in New Zealand multi-day hikers can hire a "mountain radio" for safety purposes - and to get the weather forecasts - which transmits and receives on SSB at around 3.261kHz. It's supplied with a thin plastic-coated wire dipole cut for this frequency, with light speaker cable as the lead. Hikers generally try to get the middle up on a tree branch, or a dead stick. In other words, it's jolly close to the ground. However, two options spring to mind (and I won't object if you think them fanciful, impractical, or just too unstealthy) - (1) the thinnest 5 or 6m of a 12m Spiderbeam pole (it comes with 12X1m telescopic sections); and enough cord for two guylines perpendicular to the wire direction; or (2) wrecking a 12m Spiderbeam by cutting down the sections to, say, 650mm, and having more sections (with guylines as before). I attach the dipole 800mm or so below the top, as the top of the thinnest section is too slender to support 46m of wire. I took the full 12m Spiderbeam hiking once and wouldn't do it again!! A 1m long, thick, heavy pole in the pack isn't much fun! This setup would possibly give you as much effectiveness as what is used in the mountains here. I use electrical insulation tape to stop the sections untelescoping, but in cold temperatures it tends to be harder to get off; there may be a better tape to use. Regards.
P.S. I've put one set of cutouts into the dipole and intend to install another set, to match it to other particular frequencies of interests - just banana plugs, and short cord sections to connect the bits of dipole together at the cutouts and at the top.
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