{"id":3879,"date":"2025-03-15T19:27:17","date_gmt":"2025-03-15T23:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/w4kaz.com\/qth\/?p=3879"},"modified":"2025-03-15T19:30:27","modified_gmt":"2025-03-15T23:30:27","slug":"new-pota33h-carbon-fiber-mast-from-gigaparts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/w4kaz.com\/qth\/?p=3879","title":{"rendered":"New Pota33H Carbon Fiber Mast From Gigaparts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looking at a few of the promo vids folks have posted so far about the Pota33H mast I decided to take a chance on it and the order arrived late last week.\u00a0 On first look I thought it might not be long enough to stretch to the 30-ish feet, but I underestimated the strength of the carbon fiber.\u00a0 For its short length it has a lot of sections inside, and the top section is about 1\/2 inch diameter tube.\u00a0 Thicker tubes are stronger than thinner.\u00a0 The carbon fiber provides a lot of strength in a much thinner level of material, so it should be just fine.\u00a0 I expect it will have less flop\/droop than any of the fiberglass masts.\u00a0 But the folks who got it made should be happy, it seems to check all of the design goals any backpacker might have for compact, lightweight, and strength.<\/p>\n

It did have a couple of caveats for my own uses.\u00a0 If the mast were a full 48 inches I would like it better, but it was designed for its short collapsed length.\u00a0 The second caveat is more of an impact for my own purposes.\u00a0 The base piece at the bottom of the mast is heavy duty, and quite thick. The end cap is thick and sturdy.\u00a0 So thick that as delivered it is just slightly too large to fit in one of my favored mount methods, a trailer hitch post holder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
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The truck hitch receiver with a step extension that supports the telescoping fiberglass mast. The mast du’jour is the Jac-kite 31 footer. Plus assorted extra junk in the truck bed.<\/p><\/div>\n

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After trying the mast in both mounts it was clear it was very close to being able to function in one of them.\u00a0 After a few passes with a file around the widest part of the pota33h’s base cap, it was able to just barely slide in to the hitch mount. That will make deploying portable a bit more convenient.\u00a0 Kinda hate putting the file to a massage brand new sort-of-pricey mast, but WTF.\u00a0 Not like I was sending it back anyway.<\/p>\n

Also, the pota33h should be FB for use in the screw in earth anchors I use for the beach side deployments.\u00a0 As long as it works with those its worth trying.<\/p>\n

The unknowns now are: What it will do with a real antenna attached?\u00a0 Will the friction fit hold in the wind?\u00a0\u00a0 Will the friction fit hold an antenna without collapsing in the 20 knot winds common on Cape Lookout?\u00a0 Will the carbon fiber be better than fiberglass when stressed?\u00a0 Will the thin wall carbon fiber tubes crack and split, compared to fiberglass more or less likely?\u00a0 Will sand prove to be a bigger problem for this mast than others?\u00a0\u00a0 Will it really be less floppy than its fiberglass predecessors?\u00a0 Will sand cause it issues?\u00a0 Will it have difficulty being lowered after a roll in the Cape Lookout sand?\u00a0 TBD…soon!<\/p>\n

Future post on “mast roundup”?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Looking at a few of the promo vids folks have posted so far about the Pota33H mast I decided to take a chance on it and the order arrived late last week. On first look I thought it might not be long enough to stretch to the 30-ish feet, but I underestimated the strength of the carbon fiber. For its short length it has a lot of sections inside, and the top section is about 1\/2 inch diameter tube. Thicker tubes are stronger than thinner. The carbon fiber provides a lot of strength in a much thinner level of material, so it should be just fine. I expect it will have less flop\/droop than any of the fiberglass masts. But the folks who got it made should be happy, it seems to check all of the design goals any backpacker might have for compact, lightweight, and strength.<\/p>\n

It did have a couple of caveats for my own uses. If the mast were a full 48 inches I would like it better, but it was designed for its short collapsed length. The second caveat is more of an impact for my own purposes. The base piece at the bottom of the mast is heavy duty, and quite thick. The end cap is thick and sturdy. So thick that as delivered it is just slightly too large to fit in one of my favored mount methods, a trailer hitch post holder.<\/p>\n

The end cap from the pota33H after filing is […]<\/p>\n

Continue reading New Pota33H Carbon Fiber Mast From Gigaparts<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,13,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/w4kaz.com\/qth\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3879"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/w4kaz.com\/qth\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/w4kaz.com\/qth\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w4kaz.com\/qth\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w4kaz.com\/qth\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3879"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/w4kaz.com\/qth\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3885,"href":"http:\/\/w4kaz.com\/qth\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3879\/revisions\/3885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/w4kaz.com\/qth\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w4kaz.com\/qth\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w4kaz.com\/qth\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}