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Old 12-14-2010, 04:59 PM   #3
KE5ZRT
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Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Amarillo
Posts: 273
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John, I appreciate your candor and you are probably right. I do have a mount made by High Sierra that fits in the receiver hitch pictured below, and you inspired me to dig it out of the basement and put it to use. My dual band copper j-pole was temporarily wire tied to the Winegard TV antenna and that installation was ugly, ugly, ugly! This afternoon, I mounted my j-pole to the High Sierra mount shown below with a 10' section of 1-1/2" EMT.



I had a couple of U-Bolts in my junk box that were not quite large enough to go around the conduit, but anything larger would have been too sloppy around the 1/2" copper j-pole--so I notched out the conduit with an angle grinder and a file.




...I added a quick and simple choke to the feedpoint...




...and here's the finished product. The guy ropes tied to the luggage rack are not necessary for strength, but they do add stability and they hold the mast more vertical.




Eventually, when I purchase the Cushcraft UHF/VHF beam and rotor that I want, I intend to use a similar setup but with a 21' section of chainlink fence top-rail. The guy ropes will definitely be needed for the taller mast and I will probably fit a short piece of pipe between the RV luggage rack and mast along with the guys for added stability. The top-rail inside diameter is 1-1/4" --the same as the O.D. of the vertical bar extending from the High Sierra fold-over hitch pictured above.

John, again, thank you for your advice and experience!
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Extra Class Amateur (Ham) Radio Operator, VE, SKYWARN Storm Spotter, ARES Volunteer, TSA Security Officer, Full-time RV dweller (Amarillo TX for now), webmaster www.PanhandleARES.org, Married to ke5zru!

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