Finished Tilt-Over Mast

[delta_p]

Here's my finished tilt-over, many thanks to tonsoffun's design and the antenna wiki. As you can see it is getting hammered in about a 20mph wind right now and is doing it's wind dance. I might go ahead and add a guy collar/clamp next time I have it down just for added measure. Thanks for taking the time to look.

The antenna are from top to bottom:
Elk 2m/70cm
Wilson Yagi 800 Mhz
Yaesu G450 rotator

PP

 

[digitalanalog]

Nicely done.

 

[KC0QNB]

Nicely done.

what he said. looks good, all you have to so now is see how it holds up to stiff winds :wink:

 

[RESCUE4NFD]

Great Job...

 

[guadmaster]

Looks very professional, nice lawn...whats the height of the mast?

 

[delta_p]

Looks very professional, nice lawn...whats the height of the mast?

Oh yeah, the mast length is 35 feet to the rotator bottom. It's about 40 ft tall construction from ground to tip.

Well all is calm now and she's still standing so that is great. We had steady wind and at least 25mph gust all morning. Actually, I think it'll hold a lot more but I want to add the guy wires anyway.


PP

 

[delta_p]

I am adding a guy wire clamp and wires to this mast today. I am going with 3 wires at 120 deg. but I really just want to limit sway without adding downward compression to the mast. Should I just tighten up the guy wires until they are just lightly tensioned? I'll have the ground end attached to a 2 1/2 foot ground screw/anchor.

PP

 

[digitalanalog]

Just put the Guy wires in the direction needed when you get big gust of wind.

Most places, you get the wind blowing in the same direction (not alway's but mostly)
and just guy the mast against the wind, This would be the safe bet.

Better yet, guy it from all locations in case of a hurricane....

 

[tonsoffun]

Fantastic job Delta!. The mast will withstand three times that or more at that wind speed. Mine has and still wanting more

Great job again
Ron

 

[ohiodesperado]

Nice job. I built one very similar to this myself. The hinge mount is the same design.

One comment that I think needs made for those that are considering building a similar mast, do NOT threaded pipe ends to join the pipe together. Threading a pipe significantly weakens it because the threads cut into the pipe wall and make it thin. The best option it to weld the pipe together with a proper weld. If you don't have the ability to weld, buy short sections of pipe that will either fit over inside of the pipe sections that you are joining and drill through and bolt it together. This will give you a stronger joint.

Mine is welded and is 25 foot. I have two side arms on it and it is holding an 7 element 800 Mhz beam, a 10 element 440 beam, a 5 element 144 Mhz beam, a VHF / UHF J-Pole and a discone at the top.
I am in Ohio and we recently had 50 MPH sustained winds with 70+ MPH gusts. It did dance a good bit at the top but it held up well.

 

[delta_p]

Nice job. I built one very similar to this myself. The hinge mount is the same design.

One comment that I think needs made for those that are considering building a similar mast, do NOT threaded pipe ends to join the pipe together. Threading a pipe significantly weakens it because the threads cut into the pipe wall and make it thin. The best option it to weld the pipe together with a proper weld. If you don't have the ability to weld, buy short sections of pipe that will either fit over inside of the pipe sections that you are joining and drill through and bolt it together. This will give you a stronger joint.

Mine is welded and is 25 foot. I have two side arms on it and it is holding an 7 element 800 Mhz beam, a 10 element 440 beam, a 5 element 144 Mhz beam, a VHF / UHF J-Pole and a discone at the top.
I am in Ohio and we recently had 50 MPH sustained winds with 70+ MPH gusts. It did dance a good bit at the top but it held up well.

I just slipped the upper pipe into the lower about 4 feet and crossed pinned it in two places with some 3/8 bolts to hold the weight. I used some foil tape wrapped to snug up the gap between the two pipes. If your buying the pipe, you can get it threaded or not. Not threaded is slightly cheaper. I did add the guy wires and it basically don't move at all now. We'll see how it holds up in the Nov. south eastern tornado weather.

The biggest challenge I have with this thing is with the hand crank winch. It's a worm drive and so it has like 40:1 gear ratio. It takes two people to lower/raise it. One to crank and one to walk it up stabilizing the sway. The main thing is letting the winch carry the weight and it's deceptive to some people stabilizing the sway because they feel the shake and think it's going over and overcompensate. For this reason I only trust myself to stabilize it and the other poor sole has the crank like heck to keep it moving.

PP

PP