Tilt-Over Crank-Up Antenna Mast 

The setup is still going strong now after about 12 years now. I should do a long-term weather effects video for my construction.

Most HOA's allow for the installation of a flagpole in the front yard. I always thought if I lived in a neighborhood that had a lot of restrictions I would put up that largest flagpole they would allow...flagpole insulated from the base of course then set the length to the frequency range I dx the most of course. Utilize a matching transformer if needed. ;'D

I got my winch to lift a 35 ft of heavier gauge of telescoping fence posts starting with the 3" at the bottom. So it is plenty strong to lift what I have now. I over built it.

I have a few grey hairs, and I never knew that about saddle clamps. Thanks for the lesson!

Yay! Congratulations!

Thanks for the comment. You are the second person to mention that in the last month but gave a more detailed explanation. I will go fix that when I get the chance. When I put this mast up about 9 years ago it was the first time I ever did anything with steel cable. I definitely want it to be as safe as possible. Cheers.

I just didn't want another thing for the kids or the dog to potentially run into. That's why I support it with the hook/loops.

Have you seen my "Stealthy tilt-over mast hidden by chimney" video? I built it for my VHF/UHF antennas ad it hides them fairly well. m.ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jS-reVGR_2s.html

It makes working at the antennas on top a breeze. Just make sure you leave enough cable at the pivot point to flex and bend as you put it up or crank it down.

Lesson learned on that. I only use stainless or the galvanized stuff for anything that I need steel cable for now.

The 30' of top rail doesn't flex too much? I've played with 20' of top rail with a temporary tripod setup for testing antennas but not 30'. My mast has been up there about 9 years now and the only signs of weathering has bee the plastic coating on the cable and a slight color change in the fiberglass mast. The original setup was much more heavy and tall and is totally overbuilt for how I have it configured now.

There's some flex with the 30' top railing when it reaches a specific angle while raising or lowering it, but, not much. It 's very stiff and doesn't move when I push it while It's up. But, It's still durable. Even with the flex, that stuff isn't going to bend. It's only taking about 3lbs-4lbs from the antenna for the highest top railing and the middle one take about 10lbs from the highest one, top railing is about 7lbs. I hammered the ends of the top railing in a bit to crimp it around each other, wrapped the ends with 3M electrical and rubber tape to make them thicker and add grip and keep them stiffer and some galvanized bolts and washers and Loctite. I had 20' of 1-1/4" pvc up for about three years, even during that mass hurricane I had last year. It held up, no damage. Maybe because the walls between both houses block a lot of wind. I wanted to go with a more easy and professional setup, though, so, I decided the top railing. That's good about your setup, though. I periodically addon little upgrades such as more guy wires when I have the funds to make sure everything is good. I just like taking extra steps sometimes. I thought of trying some conduit in the electrical area at home depot, about $7 for 10' galvanized. But, I went with the top railing because the ends were tapered so they can connect. Although galvanized sleeves don't cost much. Top railing was $12.99, so, the conduits were half price. I have eye bolts in the top raining to connect the winch and guy wires. I may relocate my pulley, but, it gets annoying drilling through masonry.

The crank winch has a locking mechanism that could be padlocked if necessary. I never have the antenna up for long as I only use it when I DX. I only crank the antenna up when I DX.

Hi Ben, Thanks for the concern. The winch has a locking mechanism and the ability to actually put a lock or bolt to secure it (when up or down) as well - so there is no worry of it failing. The cable is 1/4" steel cable and has several thousand pounds breaking strength and about 1400 lbs working strength. For my uses it very safe as I only use it in good weather...I think it is more than sufficient for how I use it.

I totally agree with you, Ben. The time and cost to do that is minimal and the added safety priceless. The cable is already rusting and there is no way I would risk my safety or the safety of loved ones on just that cable. Good luck though! I love the idea!

Same reason tow truck drivers have to use chains to secure the front of a vehicle... just in case the winch and/or cable breaks.

If you watched it you would know it’s been up for over 7 years.

I no longer have the mast as 35 feet of all steel pipe but I did describe it below under Gear Hammer's question. The base and winch are adequately strong to use steel pipe as I used to have it. Was that what you were asking?

Recently code has changed. They found not enough oxygen is underneath to support the rust theory. Rebar can now be ran into the ground on house footings .

Possibly. But only if it is less than 2 kg. Cheers.

Trebo-touché

packet radio v2.0

No I have not made any further mods - other than adjusting the U-bolts as others have recommended. It is currently the same as in the video. Everything seems to be holding up well to the weather and time.

Thanks, that is good news. Jamie VK2YCJ

@@kugellagers what adjustments to ubolts did you do ?

@@lancelarymore1667 I fixed the Ubolts per Dave Vick's (and others) comments...I think I did it correctly anyway.

The small winch is pretty much the same as one for a boat. It makes it really easy to raise the mast and locks in place. The exact winch I am using in in my video description above and has a link to it.

At my local Ace Hardware store. They have a lot of stuff you don't always see at the big box places. Here is a link to I think the same crank/winch I am using in the video: www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=17209176 I also added winch info to the video description up above.

+Kugellagers Noodle Excellent! I'll be ordering this winch very soon. Thanks again for your informative video and posting the link. 73's WA4NE

I scraped it together from various ideas I saw on the web for a crank up mast and adapted it to my situation. But thanks.

Rohn and several other tower manufactures already make and sell fold-over/crank-up masts. Some are even rotatable with a rotator mounted in the base! They are a bit on the pricey side though.

This is only used for AM and LW DX'ing. I don't transmit. However, there is an 8 ft ground rod grounding the mast.

+Gear Hammer I used to have the mast itself at 35 ft in length and then an antenna on top. The remainder of the mast was two more sections of heavy gauge fence post that telescoped into each other and into the remainder of the current 3 inch piece I am using as the mast for the fiberglass. I have also used fence top rail and EMT conduit in experiments. The problem I have found with using two or three sections of fence post or EMT, in my experience, is that due to the length I am using they are not very good in wind unless you are using guy wires. The weak points are at the coupling points. One ten foot section is fine but multiple sections become weak. I do use connected 1.25" fence top rail as a mast on an antenna tripod for temporary antenna experiments in the yard but not for my permanent installations. I have also used EMT for a 1/4 wave CB base antenna as well. In answer to your second question; The coax runs up the fiberglass mast and I am using the coax shield as the actual antenna. I have connected the inner conductor to the shield at the top and bottom as well. In addition, I put a female F connector at the top of the coax antenna so that I can use the coax as actual coax line to feed a small experimental antenna at the top if I desire. The design of the antenna is what MW DX'ers call a low-noise vertical which I use a broad band matching transformer of 44T:6T on an FT114 type J toroid in the small box at the bottom to match the MW and to some extent the LW bands. I am primarily a MW DX'er.

It works great when it is up. When it is in the down position it still works but the signal levels go way down and the noise goes up. The whole setup is still in great condition even though it has been installed for nearly 15 years in that spot.

Colorado. The storms come in. Dump the snow and move out. Then it's nice - but cold.

Jim K Hi Jim, If you look at my Low Noise Vertical MW BCB DX'ing Antennas video you can see this same antenna behaving in about 15 mph wind gusts. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-hSwkM9aaGNU.html. I don't know if I would keep it up in much more than 15-20 mph gusting winds but it can take some winds as long as there is only a wire antenna supported by the mast as I have it. I used to have a much heavier and larger surface antenna on top and would not put it up with winds much over 10 mph. But as I currently have it in the video, I would say you could go to at least 15 mph w/o much worry. Of course if you rig some quick deploying guy wires it should be able to take more. As you can see by the flexing as I crank it up it in this video can bend quite a bit.

It used to be heavy telescoping fence mast up to about 35 ft so there was a lot more weight involved. You are right it doesn't really need the winch now.

It's a 27' low-noise vertical of my own construction for MW/LW dx'ing and based on designs of Dallas Lankford.

Once I had the two base poles in I just measured to where I wanted the pivot points from the tops of the two poles and eyeballed it the best as I could. They lined up relatively well. Then a BFH took care of the rest (tapping the pivot bolt through all three poles.). I think (it was a good 10 years ago) I got it at my local ACE hardware. Here it is: www.acehardware.com/departments/lawn-and-garden/farm-and-ranch-supplies/farm-equipment-parts/7020662 It was only about $35 when I bought it.

@@kugellagers Nice! Always a good thing to have a BFH around! Thank you.

I think it is plenty strong for that. Fiberglass is light.

Thy Bounty Farms Wondering the same thing myself 🤔

I did that exactly. I left about 1 ft + of smaller pipe telescoped in larger pipe and have two galvanized bolts at two points go all the way through both pipes.

The telescoping sections are fixed and clamped together with band clamps. The winch uses 3/8" galvanized steel cable to raise and lower the mast assembly. See the diagram at the beginning of the video.

The crank is just a mini hand winch. I have all the parts and basic stuff I used in the more detailed part of the video description. You can probably use standard fence top rail for two sections for a temporary deployment w/o guy wires as a crank-up option like I am using it. But I would use thicker fence pipe for long-terp deployment. My antenna only up when I use it while I am using it.

I would think everything would have to be scaled up considerably to go as high as 75-100 ft. You would certainly want guy wires of some sort if it is permanent the force from wind and sheer weight of the structure increase significantly. You would quite a bit more concrete for the pier as well to support the setup. Maybe you could hing the mast in the middle to make it easier to store when not deployed.

I put it up about 10 years ago (2009) in its original version. I have had the fiberglass mast up for about 8 of those years. The galvanized steel parts show nothing other than the white/gray oxidation zinc gets over time. The fiberglass mast shows some discoloration from the sun but is still very flexible. The crank winch is the same as the metal mast pipe. The most affected by the weather has been the steel cable which was originally plastic coated. All of the plastic has dry-rotted, cracked and peeled off. The steel cable has surface rust/oxidation that looks normal and has not compromised strength. If/when I replace it I'd use a galvanized vs coated cable. All the bolt hardware is stainless and only shows rust in a couple of places like tips of threads or where there is a scratch. So overall I would say it is in excellent functioning shape. I wonder if a update video showing weathering would be useful?

All the details are in my video description but the working capacity is 1300 lbs. Cost is about $40-50 USD.

I don't guy it on the rare occasion it is up more than a day. It is very flexible fiberglass and I don't DX if winds are over 15-20 sustained. If you look at my Low-noise Vertical Antenna video you can see it flexing in some 15 mph ish winds in the last two minutes or so. It can flex a lot more than in that video.

Consider it took about 9-10 bags of cement and the original mast was telescoping fence posts about 35 ft tall. I built this over 10 years ago as well. I want to say the fence posts cost me $250-300 USD, the cement was less then $100 and the winch is $30-40. So less than $500. If I were to rebuild it today as configured with the fiberglass mast and much less fence post it would not have to be so sturdy. I would say today it would be less than $400 in its current configuration - antennas/transformers not included. But I built all that myself too.

It is for AM BCB and LW BCB DX only. But you can put whatever length of mast on you want. I used have just the mast part of it 35ft before any antenna.