• You can now help support WorldwideDX when you shop on Amazon at no additional cost to you! Simply follow this Shop on Amazon link first and a portion of any purchase is sent to WorldwideDX to help with site costs.
  • Click here to find out how to win free radios from Retevis!

PVC for antanna poles???


the pvc will end up sagging

WHOLEANTENNA-1.jpg
 
If you're going to use PVC pipe for an antenna or mast, use the thickest walled stuff you can find. You can also think about guying it if it get's very tall at all, PVC just isn't the stiffest thing around and it's affected by sun/heat/wind/etc. Wood would be the same thing, just to a different degree.
Think 'practical', some things just only go so far before they get impractical...
- 'Doc
 
Hey Capt'n,
Anything long enough will bend.

PVC will bend to a point and then break, possibly with sharp edges.
Guying is a must.

I went on the cheap and used a 10' piece of 1-1/4" EMT conduit on the end of the house.


Perhaps you could get threaded steel pipe. Sections can be joined with couplings.

Go to Home Depot or Lowe's or wherever and look in the plumbing and electrical sections.

Don't forget about grounding.
GET SOMEONE TO HELP YOU!

Whatever you do, keep us posted, good luck.


Wm.
 

Attachments

  • antenna grounding.jpg
    antenna grounding.jpg
    9.1 KB · Views: 309
1 1/2 in electrical conduit is far cheaper and far more rigid as a mast. About $8 around here at Home Depot for a 10 ft piece. PCV pipe just gets too floppy after just a few feet in length - IMO. I used a 5 ft piece of schedule 80 on top of the metal masts to isolate the dipole. That worked; but only after I used 'Gorilla Glue' (urethane glue) and inserted a piece of broom handle inside the PVC to keep it rigid.
 
OK Fellas you have talked me out of that idea,
I like the large threaded pipe idea best.
no more need answer
What was I thinking?? Thanks for all the kind answers.........Don't give up the ship,
or AT-LEAST STAY ON BOARD UNTIL EVERYONE GETS OFF.
 

dxChat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
  • dxBot:
    Greg T has left the room.
  • @ BJ radionut:
    EVAN/Crawdad :love: ...runna pile-up on 6m SSB(y) W4AXW in the air
    +1
  • @ Crawdad:
    One of the few times my tiny station gets heard on 6m!:D
  • @ Galanary:
    anyone out here familiar with the Icom IC-7300 mods