Hacks – Ham Radio Adventures with N1SPW

In two previous blog posts (Drive-on, Trailer-Hitch), I shared my heavy duty drive-on, and trailer-hitch antenna mast mount creations. In this post, I want to share a third option, my “Open-Field” mast mount.

There are times when you need to put up a tall antenna mast away from a vehicle. This may be in a park for a POTA activation, or in a remote field as an EMCOMM operator.

Many Hams will stand up a tall antenna mast using long guy wires, connected about 1/2 way up the mast. This setup usually requires two people to put in place. Deploying high/long guy wires is cumbersome, and takes up a lot of space. In most cases, it is not necessary.

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My heavy duty, “Drive-On”, mast mount is universal. It can be used with any type of vehicle. Those of you that own a vehicle with a trailer hitch, maybe interested in my hack of a trailer hitch flag-pole mount.

I ordered a trailer hitch flag-pole mount from Amazon. These devices are designed to hold a flag-pole. This particular unit has a 2.3″ diameter. I had a requirement that the size of the pipe had to be larger that 2.25″, due to the large rubber caps on my TN07 telescoping mast.

Without an insert, the flag-pole mount pipe is too large for both my TN07 and DX Commander masts. I discovered a 2″ PVC pipe fits into the flag-pole mount perfectly. The outside diameter of the pipe is 2.3″ (@60 mm). The inside diameter is 2″ (@50 mm).

I cut a length of the 2″ PVC pipe to 36″. I painted it with Rustoleum paint from a rattle can.

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