The Greyline Blog › K8AXJ: 24’ on a Michigan Lake

Customer Spotlight · K8AXJ

Assembled in 20 Minutes, Up in Half an Hour: K8AXJ on the Lake

See the 24’ flagpole K8AXJ runs →

The Install

A tilt mount, a lake, and Old Glory flying

Hira’s install on the water at Six Lakes is a clean one. He mounted the 24-foot Greyline on a tilt base — the right move, because it lets him lower the antenna for maintenance without a ladder or a crew. That said most will pull it out of the ground and lay it down as it's 27' lbs all in. Assembly ran about 20 minutes; the whole installation, under half an hour. His early verdict on 20 meters: performance has been excellent.

That last line is the whole stealth proposition in one sentence. The neighbor sees a flagpole worth saluting. Hira sees his ticket to 160 through 6 meters. Both are correct.

Why It Goes Up Fast

Twenty-minute assembly is a design choice, not luck

A 20-minute build is not an accident of an easy day. It is what happens when an antenna has no radial field to lay, no traps to tune, no coils or stubs to place. A quarter-wave vertical needs a buried lawn of radials to work against; a vertical dipole carries its second element in the air, so the ground work disappears and the install collapses to raising one clean pole. Every part Hira assembled, we assemble first — the antenna is built and test-fit in house before it ships, which is why the field assembly is mostly confirmation. Why no radials are required — the physics →

An honest note on scope: Hira’s report covers his early time on 20 meters. It is a first impression from a clean install, not a multi-band DXCC log — the kind of report worth more in six months, when the bands have given him a fuller picture. We will share that when it comes. What it already shows is the part that matters on day one: up fast, flying proud, and excellent where he has used it.

Read From the Source

Where lakefront and waterfront operators compare notes

A waterfront QTH like Hira’s is a genuine advantage — saltwater and large freshwater bodies improve a vertical’s low-angle launch. Operators trade these results constantly:

For the openings on the bands Hira has yet to fully work, the ARRL Propagation Forecast Bulletin is the standing reference. Carried for years by Tad Cook, K7RA, a Silent Key since April 2025; the ARRL continues it in his memory.

Your Station

Up in half an hour, on the air the same day

A 24-foot flagpole that ships pre-fit, raises on a tilt mount in under thirty minutes, needs no radials, and covers 160 through 6 meters. That is what Hira put up — and the saluting neighbor came free.

73, Greyline Performance · 435-200-4902

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