Category: How-To

Custom Built Drive-On Mast Support

I am a big fan of vertical antennas – especially for POTA activations. Recently, I decided to deploy “Tennessee Walt’s” world-famous EFHW TennTenna (Search Ebay for ‘TennTenna’) on 20M.

The antenna driven element for 20M is about 33′, trimmed to the lowest SWR. This requires a 10M mast to get the wire fully extended.

I own two 10M fiberglass telescoping antenna masts. One from TN07 , and the other from DX Commander in the UK. The TN07 is super heavy-duty and virtually indestructable. The DX Commander is lighter, thinner, but also quite rugged.

One drawback of the TN07 is its use of large rubber caps on each end. The diameter of the caps are 5.5cm (2.2″). This means when the bottom cap is in place, the mast will not fit into a 2″ pipe. The DX Commander uses a threaded cap on the bottom, which does not increase the overall diameter of the mast. It fits into a 2″ pipe.

When I went looking for a “drive-on” flagpole mount to hold my masts, I was surprised at how flimsy most of them are. They were also too short (length-wise), most being about 15″.  This puts the mast dangerously close to the vehicle, which can cause problems in high-wind conditions.

So, I set out to build my own.

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Introducing the XT-60

In my previous Post – I went on a rant about PowerPoles (PP). It’s true, I do not use them anymore. What am I using instead? The connector that is used in the radio controlled aircraft universe – the XT60.

Electric RC aircraft gobble up huge amounts of current. Andthe con-nection between the motors and the power source must be reliable.

Similar to the universal use of Power Poles in Ham radio, XT60’s are THE connector used in RC models.

There are 3 reasons for this:

    1.  They can handle huge amounts of current
      Although they are rated for 30 amps. These connectors can easily handle twice that amount. In fact, I have seen YouTube videos that show these connectors can handle well over 100 amps for 10 seconds or more.
    2. They are highly resistant to vibration
      This may not be an important requirement for Hams, but it is good to know these connectors are not going to come loose.
    3.  They are more resistant to weather.
       Nobody is going to claim the XT60’s are waterproof. But they have more protection against the elements than a fully exposed PP.

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Digirig – VARA – Winlink “How-To”

I have completed the testing of my HT’s on 2M with Winlink/VARA/Digirig. They are all capable of sending Emails over the air.

I wrote a detailed document on how to get all the pieces working together.
How-To_Winlink_VARA_Digirig

I hope this saves other Ham’s some time and reduces the frustration level for non-tech’s.

N1SPW