During my last POTA activation, the eyelet at the top of my trusty 20-foot Black Widow telescopic pole snapped off. This pole has served me well for over 25 years, so I can’t blame the pole. The Black Widow poles are still available from the manufacturer, so I could have just bought a new one. But hey, what fun would that be?
After staring blankly at the broken pole for a while, I rummaged through my stash of parts and came up with an easy fix. I found a small ring terminal that fit snugly over the top of the pole, so I just glued it on using some Loctite outdoor adhesive. In keeping with my usual practice, I added a small key ring (split ring) to the eyelet replacement. (For more on the rationale for the split ring, check out this post.)
Well, that was easy enough. Hopefully, this silly little hack will squeeze 25 more years of use left in this old pole. It probably won’t, but a guy can dream, right?
72, Craig WB3GCK
WB3GCK QRP Amateur Radio 