A PVC 20+ Foot Tall Tower For The Shack

[radiowave15]

This was a goofy project. PVC is not great for antenna masts or towers due to UV breakdown. But the materials were so cheap I thought I would give it a try. I'm not expecting this to last for more than a year or two. And probably less if we get dinged with a major storm, but for the time being I built this.

At the top is just a home built J pole for 2 meters. It will be attached to the little Echolink station here and/or used for local repeater work. I'm in a valley here and even with this increased elevation getting to more than one or two repeaters is difficult.

I always put together little YouTube videos of these builds.

PVC Tube Ham Radio Tower Project - YouTube

Thanks for taking a look.

Dan

 

[b7spectra]

Does it work? If yes, GOOD FOR YOU! I may have to try it myself!

 

[radiowave15]

Thanks for taking a look. It's tuned tightly (under 1.2:1 across the whole band) and appears to perform well. I just finished it today and band conditions are pretty lousy with high heat and humidity.

If I were doing it again - some things I would do differently....

I would get a flat end cap to screw that copper fitting in at the base of the J pole. The end cap I had was rounded and that pushed me slightly off center - I like things to be as spot on as possible.

I would have spent more time trying to fish the feed line and grounding wire through the tubes rather than have them on the outside; would just look better I think.

I would paint the PVC with some UV paint to give it a little more durability.

Dan

 

[zl2taw]

Is it still up ?
Any problems yet ?

 

[Rt169Radio]

I would imagine that the cold would do more damage then the heat would to a antenna like that.

 

[radiowave15]

Is it still up ?
Any problems yet ?

Yep. Still up - no problems. We've had a few storms move through in the last couple of days but no issues yet.

Dan