Over the past few weeks, my buddy Mike (KE8PTX) has quietly made several YouTube videos I thought I’d share here on QRPer.com.

By the way, Mike is the fellow behind the new Explorer POTA20 Carbon Fiber Mast Ground Spike. You may have seen me use this in a recent field report and activation video.

Ground Spikes

In Mike’s first video, he describes the evolution of the POTA20 (and Carbon 6) ground spike system and its variations. As you’ll see, quite a lot of thought and engineering went into this simple design:

FYI: You can get the POTA20 mast at Gigaparts and one (or more) of the ground spike models at the Ham Radio Adventure Guy’s online store.

Tripod Hack

In this video, Mike demonstrates how you can easily hack a portable camera tripod to support a carbon fiber mast.

As Mike notes, “It’s a bit more to fiddle with than just a spike. But in the frozen north you have to deal with ground conditions. Get yourself a cheap tripod and give it a try. Will also work well when the park will not let you stick anything in the ground or use a tree.”

Click here to check out and subscribe to Mike’s YouTube channel.

2 thoughts on “Videos: Mike’s Insights on the POTA20 Ground Spike and a Clever Tripod Antenna Hack!”

Watched the second video, smacked my forehead, then ran to the basement and checked my small tripod. Sure enough, inverting the head solves one of the biggest problems with my AlexLoop antenna: now I can just drop it onto the inverted tripod head and it’s ready to use. That’s much better than the convoluted mounting solution I’d been using. Thank you!