[Elecraft] Mast question

[Don Wilhelm]

Reuben,

If you do not want to go much higher than 30 feet, and are willing to 
bracket the mast to the house peak, you can use 3 lengths of chain-link 
fence top rail.  It is relatively inexpensive and a 30 foot mast can be 
"walked up" by one person (don't try it with 40 feet).

With the mast supported about halfway up you should not need any guy 
wires unless you get high winds or the antenna is quite heavy.  I have 
used up to 20 feet of that chain-link top rail sections unsupported 
above the bracket successfully here.  If you go higher, guy wires would 
be mandatory.

You could guy to the corners of the house and run the antenna legs in a 
direction opposite those guy wires for full "guying" of the mast.  I am 
thinking the antenna would be in an inverted Vee configuration with the 
antenna ends connected to a fence or to a post in the ground so the 
wires are above head level.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 5/27/2016 9:19 AM, Reuben Popp wrote:
> Hey everyone, more of a beginner question here and not [directly] Elecraft
> related.
>
> I have a K2 I built some time ago that I paired with a half size g5rv.  At
> the time, I was living with a buddy whose house design allowed me to set
> that antenna up as a sloper (and it worked quite well).  That said, some
> years have passed, I'm married now and the house I live in now is much
> smaller.  I have the antenna still, but it's merely laid along the vertex
> of the roof.  Reception is so-so, but I know it could be much better.  So,
> what can I use for a reliable mast that would be left up all the time?
>
> There's no trees in the lot. The house itself is a single level house on a
> slab (no basement). and from end to end it's _maybe_ all of 40'.  The
> distance from the ground to the vertex is maybe all of 16 feet (or there
> abouts).