I need to erect a temporary 20 meter dipole. I’m wondering whether using a couple of metal light stands as end supports (thin rope attached to the end insulators and then tied to the stands) would result in SWR problems due to the metal stands.
If so, might lengthening the rope help mitigate this?
By the way, I’d be running 100 watts, RG8u, and using a 1:1 balun at the feed point.
Aluminium lighting stands with some cord won’t give too much grief - the only snag is having to weight them down, because they’re rubbish as side loads. I’ve got some 6m wind up stands and they’re steel and alloy and they did cause some matching issues - but I just used longer cord and it seemed to go away. The key feature is height. Efficiency drops off badly once the ends get close to ground - Maybe a cane cable tied to each one to increase the height if they are low?