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Tune Around! Topics For
Technicians! |
Portable Vertical Antenna Mount by "Yukon John", KL7JR/VY1RST Here’s a nifty little antenna mount I take camping with me. It has a permanent place in my motor home when I want to slap up a quick antenna. When I first came across the 18 inch tall metal folding table (kids stool?) at Wal-Mart, (shown below), I knew what its new use would be. It cost around $8.00 several years ago.
All I did was to drill a 1/2 inch hole in the center top and add a 3/8" threaded CB connector to it. Sometimes I add ground radials to broaden the ground plane. I drilled a couple ¼ inch holes on the table top and just add a bolt to connect the ground radials to the table, or I simply alligator clip the wires to the legs. It needs no additional support for smaller antennas, but when used with heavier antennas such as my 50 year old Webster Bandspanner, it gets top heavy real quick so I just anchor it down with whatever is available. I’ve worked a lot of DX over the years with it sitting on picnic tables or on the ground with various mobile vertical antennas (Outbacker and Wilson FGT series CB antennas on the ham bands). During the first two hours of operating once 20m decided
to open, I casually worked OH2BAD, UA3SAQ, ES5QD, HA25NAR (special event)
and a few stateside stations to boot with 5x7 or 5x9 reports all around.
73 John, KL7JR
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