[VHFcontesting] Yagis on masts

[Sean Waite]

We use 10' sections of EMT pipe on drive over mounts. It's not a super tall
antenna, but we can get the car on top of a mountain and it is plenty high
enough. I don't know how it would hold up in serious wind. We've considered
nesting a smaller piece in for a taller mast but we would then have to guy
and that will significantly add to set up and take down time.

The pipe gets the antennas over the roof of the car, which is sufficient
for our purposes. We're running smaller yagis, 6 or 8' long depending with
a pvc moxon for 6m.

Sean Waite, WA1TE (K1SIG/R)

On Wed, Dec 28, 2016, 12:42 Mark Spencer <mark at alignedsolutions.com> wrote:

> Hi.  I tend to follow these threads with interest as I'm still looking for
> better ways of setting up my portable / roving station.
>
> Currently I'm using military surplus 4 foot long and slightly under 2" OD
> stackable aluminum mast sections (I believe they were originally intended
> for supporting camouflage netting ?)
> Have used up to 6 or 7 sections with a 15 foot long 2M beam on top but 5
> sections in total (including the fixed base) or less is much easier to
> handle by my self and I doubt I will ever run 7 sections again and I have
> never used these in any significant wind.   I wouldn't want to run these in
> a permanent setting and I can't vouch for the structural strength of the
> surplus mast sections.    I like the fact that these mast sections were
> presumably designed to be repeatedly assembled and disassembled which seems
> to match my use case.   I've had very few issues with them.
>
> I find it is usually easier and safer just to run one mast per antenna
> when I am roving by myself or with a helper rather than trying to walk up a
> stack of antennas.   Guys help and I usually use them them.   I usually
> support the bottom mast section with a receiver hitch mount on my truck or
> I use a tripod and use spikes to secure the tripod legs to the ground.
> (I usually need to use a pry bar to remove the spikes.)    I find I can
> usually manage 4 stacked mast sections with an antenna on top, and I can
> set those 4 sections onto a base section and get 20 feet in total.  Having
> a helper is handy as well.
>
> I typically only set these masts up in out of the way locations far away
> from other people.   I plan to spend 30 minutes per mast / antenna during
> setup.   Tear down is usually faster.
>
> I do find that getting the antennas 20 feet or so up in the air helps with
> the performance of my station on the lower bands.   I figure there is also
> probably some benefit in running separate masts on the lower bands vs
> stacking 6M, 2M and 1.25M antennas on the same mast.   Most of my contacts
> are in one general direction and  I've generally only found rotors to be of
> use on 432 MHz and up (but I suspect my situation may be a bit unusual.)
>
> I've yet to find an inexpensive (ie under $1K) telescoping mast solution
> that I'm happy with and the expensive ones I've been happy with weren't
> available for me to use in my Ham Radio activities.  It is nice to hear
> from those who have run Rohn pop up masts (or similar products) while
> roving.    I'll have to look more closely at those (but I like to be able
> to break everything down to six foot sections or less.)
>
> I've had issues over the years with inexpensive telescopic masts binding
> during tear down.  I still carry hammers, big pairs of water pump pliers,
> hack saws etc to deal with the resulting issues just in case I can't break
> apart the stackable masts I use.   I figure many inexpensive telescopic
> products may not be intended for repeated telescoping but that is just
> speculation on my part.
>
> 73 and be safe
>
> Mark S
> VE7AFZ
>
>
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