Before we get started with this, let's make one thing abundantly clear.  There are, in all probability, 432,961 different ways to do any particular project wrong but only one way to do it right.  It's time to tar and feather whoever it is that consistently give  us so many freaking choices!

In the off chance that there are people out there who actually understand engineering and normal aspects of wave propagation and the many different ways by which it can be used, this work will concern itself with those of us who are completely in the dark when the technical discussion begins.  I tend to be able to follow the discussion until someone says, "But in that case the........."

When we talk about antennas (or to be grammatically correct, antennae) all we want to know is if the darned thing is going to work well enough to justify all the sweat and worry we are going to expend making it and getting it up in the air.....somewhere!

Many years ago I was reading through my trusty ARRL Handbook, and folks, we are talking many years ago. I mention this only because, at my age, one has to continually remind one' self lest Murphy take up permanent residence in one's mind.  Aside from making an antenna, one must also have a way of getting the antenna high enough to make a difference while still maintaining a respectable distance to the rig. I was looking for just that...an antenna mast I could use to get an inverted vee up above the roof of my home. We don't need the XYL or YL to get upset because we spent more than the allocated amount on coax caused by our installing a mast in such a position as to make the neighbors think we are attempting to communicate with rebel troops on the planet, Tatooine, for heaven's sake!


Regardless of the name some extremely technically adept person attaches to it, it's still.....just an antenna...to us. There are a number of different ways to construct a mast of sufficient height to be worthwhile. The easiest, of course requires that we spent $90+ at the local Sears store for a push-up mast. Hmmm, she's already complaining about how much I spent on coax. There has to be a better and cheaper way to do this which brings me back to my reading through the "Handbook". They had all kinds of good stuff in those old handbooks! Way back in the back just before you got to the pages upon pages of commercial ads for Collins, Hallicrafters, National, and Drake gear I found the description which fit right in with what we need here (mind you, this was a 1959 vintage Handbook from ARRL).....a mast constructed using three(3) 16 Ft 2X4s and one(1) 8 ft 2X4. One can find such wood pieces at their local Lowe's or Home Depot or other local building supply company.  This will give us a mast of approximately 32 feet in height once built. The lumber should, of course, be treated to avoid feeding the termites and other critters which slither incessantly over the ground.

To this end, I set about checking into the possibilities of such a mast.  The total cost for the treated 2X4s was a whopping $21.03 including tax. Another 10 bucks for lag bolts, washers, and nuts to tie it all together (I don't believe in building such things using the common nail method) and I was all set.  If you want to be able to raise and lower the antenna for adjustments, a pulley mounted at the top is a splendid idea.  I found that guy wires were not a necessity since the whole thing was tied to the eave of the house with a sheet metal bracket.  The antenna attached at the apex of the mast is dropped in an inverted "V" fashion taking care of the guys at the top of the mast.  You can guy this thing if you wish.  It won't destroy the aesthetics of the installation. 

 

 

First things first...

1. Make sure you have enough assistants on hand to make the whole event run both smooth and SAFE.

2. Always use safety goggles and a good pair of gloves while completing any project of this type.

3. Once the supporting tables are placed in position and a jig built to maintain alignment
    of the pieces, securely  clamp the project onto the supporting tables.

4. Drill all holes in one continuous process and then put the freaking drill away. Electrical products
     laying around have a habit of doing some pretty strange things at the most inopportune times.

5. Using either a brake or the clamped project pieces, fabricate a bracket which slides tightly
    over the mast with flanges for securing the mast to the side of the house. It is important here
    to consider the placing of the mast bracket.

         NOTE:  DO NOT simply attach to the fascia board. Find solid sill plates at the top
                       of the ceiling or rafter plates and secure the whole thing with long lag screws,
                       or lag bolts with a backing plate, into the solid wood structure of the house.

                                          The XYL or YL should be assured that this process
                                          will not weaken the structure of the house!

6.  Be sure to provide liquid refreshment for all assistants to enjoy after the project has been completed.

Now, when you are absolutely certain that you have cut one of the 8' 2x4s to the correct lengths for the blocking you're gonna have to stop and think a bit. I know this is rough but, alas, it's one of the pitfalls when one starts building anything.

When drilling the mounting holes for the spacer blocks, it is best to use a long 5/16" bit and drill through all 3 pieces at one time. This facilitates better hole alignment when you start trying to assemble the whole thing. I would mark all pieces numerically.   This means that a bit with a length of at least six inches is needed.   I reccommend using a 5/16" wood bit (a spade bit) for this operation.    Now, admittedly, I usually think a tad off center, but... in my way of doing things, I used two card tables as supports and built a small jig so that I could align all of the vertical pieces and then clamped them in place before I started the drilling process. Just made sense to me at the time.   Please use the utmost of care in this process.  You will never live it down if you drill a hole through the top of one of the XYL's card tables.   While you have all this wood clamped down on the card tables is an extremely good time to form a mounting bracket around the structure using sheet metal. I used a 4" wide by 18" long piece of 1/8" thick aluminum for this. Using a brake to make the bends in the proper place is the easy way of doing things but it is also fairly easy to do using a vise and 5 pound hammer to bend and form the bracket with the vise mounted on the workshop bench. Just remember that you must measure the total thickness to the mast before bending the bracket or you must make the bend using the mast as a template.  

Once all pieces are bolted together you (and that friendly ham who has volunteered to help with the project) can attach the pulley to the top of the top 16' 2x4 and install the halyard for raising and lowering the antenna.  You are now ready to raise the mast up against the house and secure it to a solid sill plate or rafter.  Once vertical, the mast is a dangerous critter should it decide to fall down in the yard.  In the assembly and erection process it is wise to use temporary guy lines to keep things where you want them.   If your house has a normal roofline then it's a simple procedure to only install one bolt in the upper piece and then hinge it up before installing the last two bolts.  It's just as easy though, considering you have spent the right amount and included a couple of six packs (placed in the fridge until all the work is done, for everyone's enjoyment after the project is complete) is raising the thing to vertical with all bolts in place. 

Once the job is complete, it is a simple matter to attach the center insulator of your super-duper, hot shot, Jim dandy, dipole and coaxial cable to the halyard and raise it up to full height considering that you have first attached lines on each end to secure the whole thing to the XYL's favorite pecan tree or eye bolt at the corner of the garage.  Put the freaking stepladder away and clean up all the little stray pieces of rope that are laying around.  Don't forget to fold up the card tables and put them where they are supposed to live or the XYL is never going to let you forget that you didn't do it.

One ham I know bought an 8" diameter, 2'0" length of schedule 40 PVC pipe to use as sheathing for the buried part of the mast support.   This is a great way to make a form for the base to sit in but I would first enclose the 2"0" that goes into the ground with sheet metal and then pour the whole thing full of "kwik-crete".   If you do this, do not use aluminum for the sheathing material since concrete reacts with the aluminum and eats it away.   And, for goodness sake, clean up this messy area.  God forbid we give the XYL or YL something else to complain about because we have to take the whole thing up again and replace that sheathing!

When everything is done, invite all assistants into the shack and give her a try while you ingest the various liquids you have been so considerate to have provided.  This all assumes that you are better at this than I am and have remembered that you must run the coax into the shack somehow and have even hooked it to the tuner, or directly to the rig for proper operation.  Your rig will thank you for remembering this step... especially if you are like me and use one of the older type rigs with tube filaments that tend to glow warmly in the dark.