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Portable "tower" for a light yagi?

Moleculo

Ham Radio Nerd
Apr 14, 2002
9,194
1,674
283
Does anyone know of a product or a way to build a portable 20-30 foot tower that will work with a light weight yagi? I'm looking for something like the Superantennas portable tower:

a_Mini_Tower.jpg


Unfortunately, Superantennas is out of business for now. I want to use something like this that I can put up in my back yard, then take down when we have people over and also take it with me when I'm out in the RV.

Any ideas?
 

reply for antenna

try looking at airtronix.com they have a PV-7 antenna for under $120 and does 10M - 40M. I saw one at field day and it worked well.

Mike
KD8JUF
 
Two 10 ft sections of galvanized TV mast can be had at your local Fry's Electronics for $40...

Or four 5 ft masts @ $10 each (@ Fry's) for better portability.
They interlock too!

Then - a roof tripod mount...
 
The tower that comes with the YP-3 yagi is made up of two products.

The base section is the "On Stage Classic Stand" and the mast is a 21 foot telescoping aluminum mast.

I am retired and while I was watching the news on TV I did some searching.

You can find the On Stage Classis Stand at Cheapham.com. It sells for $44.95

The aluminum mast is found at K1CRA Radio Store - Your Source for Ham Radio. The 21 foot telescoping aluminum support mast part # mast21B is being sold for $119

Lee - KE7NBN
 
The tower that comes with the YP-3 yagi is made up of two products.

The base section is the "On Stage Classic Stand" and the mast is a 21 foot telescoping aluminum mast.

I am retired and while I was watching the news on TV I did some searching.

You can find the On Stage Classis Stand at Cheapham.com. It sells for $44.95

The aluminum mast is found at K1CRA Radio Store - Your Source for Ham Radio. The 21 foot telescoping aluminum support mast part # mast21B is being sold for $119

Lee - KE7NBN

Excellent work, thanks! I have that flagpole buddy that is shown with the aluminum mast in K1CRA. I tried using the heavy duty 21' fiberglass mast with the YP-3 but it wasn't sturdy enough. You really need the aluminum mast for that antenna.
 
I actually sell the military surplus fiberglass and aluminum poles at the local ham fests. No mail order, shipping is too expensive.

Please be careful when you buy the fiberglass poles. The fiberglass poles come in several different types. The main difference in fiberglass poles are the reinforced poles and unreinforced poles. The link you posted are for the unreinforced poles and they are very dangerous. They will break and crack very easy without much pressure. Even when you reinforce them with Schedule 80 pvc pipe or use hose clamps for reinforcement they are not satisfactory and will not last. They do make good tomato or bean stakes, or really neat fence posts. :)

I read where a unreinforced pole broke and impaled someone. I would hate to have this happen to any one because of lack of knowledge.

Look for the reinforced fiberglass poles. They have a fiberglass ring glues to the end of the pole where the coupler fits. Don't buy the poles with plastic reinforcements, the plastic cracks and breaks that is where the unreinforced poles came from.

If you are interested in having a thread started on military surplus fiberglass and aluminum poles, I will be glad to share what limited knowledge I have.

The guy rings that you have a link to are OK, they are just plated and will eventually rust, look for guy rings that are galvanized. If you want to make your own guy rings, go to the hardware store and buy 1-1/2 washers and drill them yourself.

Lee
 
If you are interested in having a thread started on military surplus fiberglass and aluminum poles, I will be glad to share what limited knowledge I have.

That would be a great read if you could. I've often looked at various types of these at hamfests and swap meets and have heard various things about what is good vs. bad, but I really have never talked to anyone that was really knowledgeable. I've shied away from purchasing them because I wasn't sure about what I was buying.
 
portable antenna tower

What I have done was to buy a used 'light tower'...got mine minus the lights and genset...just the crank up tower and the enclosed trailer. Got mine for $500.00 ...I have added 3 additional 'stabilizers' and an additional 14 foot round steel mast section (the tower is square tubing)...which will get me up around 35 feet or so. Really easy to tow, crank up, etc. I am adding a floor inside and will place my own portable 4kw genset inside..this will give me added weight to help stabilize the unit and allow for portable 'boondock' ops...will send pics on request...a work in progress...
 
Hi Everyone,

It has been quite a while since I have been by to visit. My wife died last May and everything went pretty much on hold while I tried to sort my life out. I must admit that my ham radio community was here when I needed them. They encouraged me to do field day and go to a remote island for Salmon Run (Washington State QSO contest). These activities really helped me focus on things other than what I was going through. This is off topic so I will continue with something more on topic.

The feature article in the June 2011 was "A One Person, Safe, Portable and Easy to Erect Antenna Mast" This article featured a tripod bracket that was used with the Military Camo Poles, which I sell at local hamfests. It was telling about a person on ebay who was selling these tripods, so I bought one from him.

In June, a month after my wife died, my friends talked me into taking my trailer to Fort Flagler and go camping for a week. This location is where my club does their field day. I was camping next to Fred and Robin Lloyd's Motor Coach, the QRZ Fred. For the week I was on the air with my Super Antenna YP-3 on top of Heavy Duty Aluminum Poles that I sell. I was using the tripod I bought on ebay. For the legs I was using 6 light duty aluminum poles, the ribbed ones with the reinforcement ring. I used two poles per leg which put the tripod bracket at about 5 foot. The heavy duty aluminum pole with the antenna attached was inserted in the center hole of the tripod before the second set of legs were put on. I then proceeded to lift up the mast and inserted the next section then raised the second section and inserted the third section etc. I was doing all of this by myself with no help. I was not using guy lines so I only raised the antenna about 25 feet. At night before retiring to bed I went out and lowered the antenna to sit on top of the tripod at the 5 foot height. I could raise and lower the antenna in about 5 minutes. One thing I noticed was that as the antenna got almost up to height the tripod bracket tended to lift out of the legs slightly but I reseated the legs and continued. Everyone who saw it was really impressed.

I contacted a local fab shop to make up a few for my friends and to sell with my poles. They made them out of steel and improved the design by adding locking bolts to lock the legs into the tripod bracket.

A couple of us guys set up a portable operation on Orcas Island for the Salmon Run (Washington State QSO Contest) We used my poles and tripods for the antenna masts.

orcasbeam.JPG


100_0794.JPG


This is the Super Antenna YP-3 on 20 meters with rotor on the portable tripod mast. You will notice we used guy ropes. The wind always blows on Orcas Island and we needed stability, also note the ground was not flat where we raised the antenna. I have been thinking of making one adjustable leg with pins to compensate for uneven ground. The yellow tripod bracket is the one that I bought on ebay.

orcasdipole.JPG


100_0798.JPG


This is the portable tripod mast used with the 80 meter and 40 meter dipoles. We used a fiberglass pole for the top section of the mast and aluminum sections for the rest. The 80 meter dipole was run north/south and the 40 meter dipole was run east/west. We only had these dipoles at about 20 feet, we were trying to lift the dipole antennas and coax with the mast, it gets dern heavy and it was all two of us could do to raise it. The antennas worked very well at that height though. We found out later that they were acting as NVIS antennas, and we were trying to work all 39 counties in Washington State. Next time though we will take advantage of a couple of pulleys and some rope.

One of my friends went to be with his sick mother and wanted to set up a temperary station. Here is his set up using the tripod mast.

blaketripod.jpg


These tripods are very easy to fabricate if you have the equipment or have them made up at your local fabricating shop.

In my opinion this is a safe and easy way to deploy your antennas for field day, when camping, or if you are retired and want something simple to throw up when traveling. If you live in a community that has covenants this is a great way to pop your antenna up for a while and then lower it down below the fence line.
 
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