Push Up Antenna Masts

[Mudfoot]

The Rohn looks like an easy way to go. I would consider the ROHN H50 43 ft mast and take off the top section which is 1-1/4 in diameter so the next section should be 1-1/2 which is needed for the 1-1/2 U bolts for the Antron 99.

These appear to be 9 ft sections so a 43 ft minus 1 section (assuming they come apart) would be 34 ft just short of a half wavelength on 11 meters but right on the money for 10m.

Properly supported to your 27 ft roof I think this is possible without guying.

DXE sells these for $245 but it will require truck shipping due to size and weight. You don't live too far from Tallmedge OH so it might be worth the drive to pick it up.

Take a look at their wall brackets by Rohn and see what depth may be needed for your install.

Thank you for this. Looks like it will do nicely. Once bracketed, if needed, I could guy towards the front and any wires would be above and out of the way. I've been to DX Engineering several times over the years. My nephew lives along the way, so I can visit and break-up the trip.

I've been feeling nostalgic and would like to get a 5/8 wave. In all practicality, I'll likely get a Gainmaster. I really liked my old one. Should have brought it with me when I sold the house. I intend to attach a full size 80 meter wire as well. A local ham friend builds nice HF verticals. That should complete my simple HF station.

I think most of the old timers here remember the head injury I had. Took a year or more before I started feeling better, then I lost my best ham friend, KB5KCN. We talked practically every evening for many years. His death hit me hard and I lost interest in the hobby. A few months ago, I started digging out my equipment, then unexpectedly, my beautiful wife of 32 years passed away. I was about to give up completely. She wasn't a big fan of my hobby, but she did support me and tolerated ham fest trips with me. I know she'd want me to get back into it, so here I am.

I started in the early 70's. Some of my questions and inquiries might sound amaturish, but my memory and concentration is still affected by my injury and grieving the loss of my wife. Just bear with me as I get back full steam ahead. I need to get back on the air. Some of my old friends are getting long in the tooth. I miss our QSO's.

 

[fourstringburn]

Sounds like you've been through quite a lot over the past few years. Sorry to hear about your losses. Glad you're getting through it all OK.

We are all here to help each other by kicking around ideas and sharing past experiences.

One thing I just thought of that you may not know about DXE is they have opened a shipping distribution center in Nevada so many of my past purchases came from there. It could possibly be because I live in NM and it's closer or maybe because most of their shipping is from there now.

If that's the case, the inventory at Tallmadge maybe limited so best to check before making the drive.

Good luck with your setup!

 

[Mudfoot]

Thanks for the heads up.

 

[somicide]

well anyway, this comment wont get likes but this threads solved.: do NOT put up a 5/8 wavelength antenna on a 40 foot push-up-pole by yourself. thats the answer yall

its possible with two people but you might wanna reconsider the height and just go to 20ft instead if youre by yourself

dont risk your life or anyone elses over a hobby.peace

 

[John David Trolinger]

Shipping is crazy expensive. I found my Rohn 25 and the push up mast on Craigslist. Also our neighbor had a push up mast laying on the ground so I have that up in the air also.

Recently I looked at a few sections of craigslist Rohn25 but it ended up being cut and dropped so I took a pass. That and the guy kept warning me about climbing towers. Go figure.

AME-25 Radio Tower project

 

[Shadetree Mechanic]

I had thought about a push up pole at one time. I eventually decided to make a tilt over mast out of galvanized water pipe. Check it out:

Thread 'Sirio New Vector 4000 Install' https://www.worldwidedx.com/threads/sirio-new-vector-4000-install.226677/

 

[Eldorado828]

I did a homemade tilt/telescopic pipe mast. It's kind of raw but it works. I used pipe i already had and a section of scaffolding. It folds at the bottom and then the top section is slid inside the middle section. I drilled and tapped the middle section to hold the top slide section and once standing it mounts to the house. Home brew ingenuity but it works.

Here's a few photos of when I was in the early stages of it and a few after I got the antenna up.

 

[Crawdad]

I did a homemade tilt/telescopic pipe mast. It's kind of raw but it works. I used pipe i already had and a section of scaffolding. It folds at the bottom and then the top section is slid inside the middle section. I drilled and tapped the middle section to hold the top slide section and once standing it mounts to the house. Home brew ingenuity but it works.

Here's a few photos of when I was in the early stages of it and a few after I got the antenna up.

What do you have on it?

 

[dave457]

Don't you get water in that bottom pole, could cause rust in long term?

 

[Mudfoot]

I'm abandoning the well pipe. It's like Lil over 30'. Hard to transport unless I cut it and couple the other end. Pushup is primary choice followed by galvanized and similarly installed the way in this thread.

 

[Eldorado828]

What do you have on it?

I currently have a wind damaged sigma venom silver rod but soon getting replaced by a sirio 2016. I worked the world with it until the damage.

Don't you get water in that bottom pole, could cause rust in long term?

The bottom pipe has been capped on the top since the photos. I wasn't too worried about it to begin with, we don't get a lot of rain in these parts.

 

[Mudfoot]

Working with 2 inch galvanized or similar shouldn't be that difficult. If you want a telescoping setup with a 1-1/2 pipe inside. Couple years before I sold the house, I lowered it to attach a dipole. I lost my grip and tore my shoulder up. That mast served me well for many years. I think it was 36' tall.

I think I mentioned how dad and I did that in the early 70's. I should just do that again. The 2" range 2, Oil well pipe I was wanting is 34' long and weighs 357 lbs. That's what we used at my friends house. We coupled a section together. I was talking to him yesterday. He won't haul it for me on his trailer. Says it's to long. So we're not talking for now, especially after I busted my ass helping him put his up. That's another story. I know it's crazy heavy, but it's free and I have bucket truck access. I was going to drop it down into another pipe concreted in the ground so it'd be free standing and run wires from it.

Anyway, that Rohn pushup is the direction for now, unless I can find some similar galvanized as mentioned and replicate that. I'm in a rural area where that's hard to find. Tower is still possible if I can find any that's not junk.

 

[KD5ITM]

I got my Ham Radio licenses at age 17 back in December ‘99. January 1, 2000 dad and I installed a Rohn 50’ galvanized push up antenna mast for my G5RV Inverted V dipole antenna. In May ‘08 I bought an AL-811H amp. I decided to upgrade the coax to RG-213 as well as replace the G5RV Inverted V with a new G5RV Inverted V dipole. I also added a 10’ section of 1.25 OD galvanized TV antenna mast to the top of the push up pole so I could get the G5RV Inverted V up closer to 60’. This has been my home HF antenna set up for the past going on 26 years other then for the 10’ TV antenna mast extension added in May ‘08. When dad and I installed the push up pole January 1, 2000, we dug a 30” deep by 18” wide hole. We placed the base of the pole in the hole and then filled it up with tightly packed pea gravel. This has made for a very sturdy base for the 50’ push up pole. The pole is grounded at the base with an 8’ copper ground rod in the ground and a 10” long 00 gauge copper braided 48V electric forklift battery cable connected from the ground rod to the pole. The pole is mounted at the back of the house right next to the brick chimney. The chimney is about 16’ - 18’ tall. At the top of the chimney, there are two 2” wide stainless steel “chimney mount” straps that provide a strong support for the pole. About 38’ - 40’ up, I have three 5 1/6th” gauge steel braided cable guy wires. Each guy wire has a Porcelain guy wire insulator 12” from the guy wire pole end as well as 12” from the support end. Because the G5RV Inverted V dipole antennas total weight is less then 4lbs, the guys are not supporting any weight other then keeping the pole from swaying back and forth in strong winds. I live 27 miles north of downtown Houston, Tx and 70 miles north of Galveston Island. Over the past 25 years, Houston has had 4 tropical storm direct hits and 4 cat 3 or higher hurricanes along with countless numbers of strong thunder storms with 70mph + winds. The galvanized push up pole (at 60’ since May ‘08) has stood tall like a champ and twice on Sundays with zero issues. When I know a tropical storm / hurricane is coming, all I need to do is take both legs of the G5RV Inverted V dipole antenna (that are tied off to the back yards right / left side picket fence line, from the end of the antenna leg porcelain insulator to the picket fence, using 8lb test “Spider Wire” nylon braided fishing line) and coil both legs back to the base of the push up pole (each of the two inverted v antenna legs are made using 51’ of 14 gauge stranded bare copper wire), zip tie both coiled legs so the wire doesn’t come un coiled. And then zip tie both coiled antenna legs to the pole a 3 or 4 feet from the ground so that nether of the two legs blow around in the high winds as well as preventing the copper wire going up the pole to the top of the G5RV Inverted V from blowing around. Since the total weight of the G5RV Inverted V dipole antenna is no more then 4lbs, there’s practically no weight, other then the weight of the galvanized push up pole its self, to have to worry about. The three 5 1/6th” guy wires up around 38’ - 40’, are more then enough to keep the pole from swaying around in high winds. During hurricane Ike in September 2008, before it made a direct land fall on Galveston Island, it was the largest Cat 5 hurricane in history. When it hit land fall on Galveston, it was a very strong Cat 4 with wind gusts up to 151mph. By the time Ike got up to my home, 70 miles north of Galveston, it was a strong Cat 3 with max wind speeds of 126mph at my home. The push up pole performed like a champ. In the spring of 2010, 2012, 2019 and 2024, we had several back to back thunder storms with wind gusts as high as 84mph at my home during one of these thunder storms in May 2024. June 2024 Houston got a direct hit from hurricane Barrel which was a strong Cat 3 when the eye made land fall. The eye of the storm passed just 6 miles west of my home. My max wind speeds were 112mph. The push up pole right around 60’ up, had zero issues with the wind thanks to the 3 guy wires up around 40’. If I had a much heaver 3 or 4 element multi band beam antenna at the top and not the light weight G5RV Inverted V dipole antenna, I would have used heaver 1/4” - 3/8” gauge guy wires depending on the antenna weight. I would have also lowered the push up pole as low as the beam antenna would let me. A 3 or 4 element 3 or 4 HF band beam antenna or a long 13 element 2m band yagi antenna will have a much greater wind load compared to a 14 gauge copper wire dipole antenna thats hanging straight down from the top of the pole to the base of the pole. I would not give it a second thought if I needed to buy another 50’ galvanized push up antenna pole tomorrow if needed. I’v been very pleased with my almost 26 year old push up pole.
- KD5ITM -