Scrap PVC Vertical Antenna Mount, by KE3FL

I've had difficulty mounting two tubes to one another, one being the antenna mast tube, the other a mounting section of an antenna, usually some smaller PVC diameter tube.

I wanted something to hold the two of them parallel and finally hit upon this idea: I found two scrap pieces of PVC pipes either a bit larger or smaller inner diameter than the outer diameter of the two sections I wanted to mount together. In Photo 1 the scrap pieces and the two finished PVC antenna mounting pieces can be seen.


Photo 1: The starting materials and two finished mounting sections. cutting strip

All my cutting was done by hand and I suspect that if you have a jig, you'll be able to make nicer - looking sections than I was able to make. My pipe sections worked when I cut these down the middle (as well as I could). I used a rubber band to hold the small diameter and large diameter pieces together and then glued them using the correct PVC glue. The pieces were moved around a bit until I was satisfied they were as parallel as I could make them. The glued pieces were then left to dry. Once the glue had set, two holes were drilled and tapped and two screws were used to also hold the pieces together.

In Photo 2, you can see the one section being held together with a rubber band, and a finished section where I drilled and tapped two holes to keep it together, not counting on the glue to last as long as I want the mount to last in the elements.


Photo 2: Rubber band-glued section & screwed together section

Once dry and screwed together, I tested one of the sections with a UHF TV omnidirectional antenna I designed. It works equally well with my 2m - 70cm J-pole.

Photo 3: Close-up of PVC mounting section
Photo 3: Close-up of PVC mounting section


Photo 4: UHF TV Antenna using the PVC antenna mount.

Here are two other photos from an even I helped with where I used a J-pole antenna mounted to 20 feet of antenna mast using this new mounting method.


Photo 5: J-pole to Antenna Mast


Photo 6: J-pole to Antenna Mast Close-up

Philip Karras, KE3FL