A timber antenna mast

Timber mast suitable for supporting lightweight wire antennas. The mast is 6 metres tall plus a 2 metre top extension. It tilts over for easy work on antennas.

The antenna supports dipoles for 40, 20 and 10 metres, coming off the one feedpoint. 15 metre operation is provided by the 40m dipole. 80 metres is covered by adding loading coils to the 40 metre dipole. The antenna is similar to VK5AH's dipole except there is a dipole for 10 metres instead of 15 metres. VK5AH: http://users.picknowl.com.au/~wavetel/antennas.htm#6m-10m

Being timber the mast is suitable as the centre support for open wire-fed dipoles such as the G5RV. Though it has the disadvantage of requiring an antenna coupler, the single G5RV wire is lighter and cleaner looking as one wire replaces three while covering more bands.




Since the video was taken the mast has been extended to 9 metres, with a 38mm timber dowel u-bolted to the top portion. To lower wind resistance and make the higher mast less obtrusive at the top the chopping board pictured has been replaced with a much slimmer PVC T-piece.

Main items required (from timber/hardware store):

* 45 x 90mm treated pine (6m lengths are good)
* pole for top extension (and u-bolts for it)
* Paint
* A few big bolts with nuts & washers
* Cement
* Cable clips and mounting hardware

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• antenna
• mast
• tower
• homebrew
• amateur
• ham
• radio
• shortwave
• timber
• tilt-over

[westkan]

My guess this is Peter from amateurlogic.tv . Definitely sounds like him. TV stars can't hide dude :)

[vk3ye]

@westkan not me!

[vk3pb]

@westkan Its oke - I understand. We Australians all look and sound the same :)

[vk3pb]

@westkan No its not me - I am VK3PB. This video is made by Peter Vk3YE who also lives in melbourne. he has some cool videos.

Peter from Amateurlogic

[patchcords]

Excellent job. I am planning to build something very similar, but up about 60 feet.

73 de VE3RKP

[NcalBiker]

Excellent job. I am planning to build something very similar, but up about 40 feet. 73deKF6AAR

[eogg25]

@radiotwiddler have you ever tried to tilt a pine tree.

[bluejay148]

pretty cool i like that

[westkan]

A method that has been in ARRL publications for a long time. Always nice to see how others implement it. Thanks for taking the time to make the video and posting it here. In y area oilfield pipe salvage is somewhat inexpensive, and is often use to make tilting mast of differing styles. I have a tilt over tower mast that is 100 feet, but is guyed. Survived an F2 tornado & straight line winds estimated at 90 MPH by other damage done in the area. The joys of living in Kansas USA :)

[radiotwiddler]

Just hang on a minute... plant a pine tree in the middle of the garden... wait for 20 years or so for it to be tall enough.. yep i can see how that would work... maybe dead by that time but yep.. its do-able!!