If you are one of the many people that have a portable satellite radome, such as the King Tailgater series, you know that it is not always convenient to set it on the ground with a tripod mount. Sooner or later you will want to get the antenna up into the air a bit to clear obstructions, whether they be trees, a RV next door, or some other obstruction.

The traditional choice has always been a permananet roof mounting kit for the radome. This requires you to drill holes in the roof or someway get the coax to the receiver, which is not always convenient. Another option is to climb to the top of the RV and simply sit the antenna on the roof.

Neither of these options appealed to me as I wanted the option of mounting the antenna on the roof or ground, because the most advantageous mounting location will vary from campsite to campsite. I already had a Flagpole Buddy 2.0 mount (for 2" diameter flagpole masts), and a leftover broken Harbor Freight 4 section aluminum flagpole mast, so I got the idea of putting two-and-two together and came up with a portable flagpole mount antenna mast.

Design Considerations: I wanted something that could be stored easily, assembled with no (or a minimum of) tools, not too heavy or bulky, easily erected by one person, and looked nice. I think you will agree that I achieved all of my goals with this project.

The cost was around $200, but that is not really out of line if you consider the ground based tripod is almost $100.

Dissasembling the flagpole is not really that hard, you simply have to knock off the plastic silver rings at the top of the sections you want to remove. I removed the bottom and top section, which gave me a 2" base and a 1 3/4" top section. Of course, you can buy raw aluminum tubes that do fit into each other but they were almost $100 (including shipping) for two 6ft sections. And then you would have to drill a hole at the intersection of the two masts and insert a clevis pin to hold them together.

Given that you can buy a new 20ft Telescoping Flagpole Kit from Harbor Freight for under $60 (less when they have a sale), even re-purposing a new one is going to be less expensive. And as I show in the video, if the prone-to-failure twist mechanism ever does fail, just use a clevis pin extend the mast. Whatever flagpole you use, make sure it fits the Flagpole Buddy (2" dia bottom, 1 3/4" dia top).

From the exploded view, you should be able to get a farily good idea of how everything fits together. The parts I used were all common RV or general purpose parts, with really only one item needing fabrication - the antenna base. The biggest challenge though was how to fit a flange on the mast. After several trips to the home center and not finding a plumbing flange that was acceptable, I decided to epoxy a RV/Boat Table Flange to the mast.

To strengthen the epoxy joint, I wrapped it in fiberglass tape and poured epoxy into the void. I am happy to report that the epoxy joint is very strong. If you go this route, you will want uV rated slow-cure epoxy, because it does take time for the epoxy to wick into the fiberglass tape. And of course uV is absolutely necessary. I found that epoxy potting compound, the kind that is used to seal electronic circuit boards worked great.

One issue I had is I wrapped the fiberglass tape a bit too tight and even after 24 hours, it did not fully wick through the entire tape. So I had to complete two pours - the first from the bottom, and the second from the top.

You could also put three bolts and nuts through the mast and flange for additional strength if you wanted to, but I have not (yet) found it to be necessary.

The base of the assembly is made from 1/4" PVC because I had it in the workshop. you can alternatively use King Starboard, HDPE, or even metal - whatever is easiest for you to find (the PVC is a bit expensive). Note that PVC is available in Type-1 (Rigid), or expanded (foam). Type-1 rigid is what you want.

To cut out the base, I simply sit the antenna on the PVC and traced the outline with a Sharpie. I cut the base out with a Dremel MS-20 Moto-Saw. You have to take it easy on the lowest speed setting so you do not melt the PVC. The antenna is not quite round, so I transferred the center of the antenna (found by looking at the underside), and used that as the center point on the base for the flange.

I am using 1/4-20x1" stainless steel Hurricane Bolts (sometimes called Sidewalk bolts) to attach the base to the flange along with tall Star Knobs. The issue here is short knobs will intefere with the flange of the table mount, so you want long ones. Even then I had to chamfer the ends so they would tighten all the way.

I was able to use a belt sander to put in the chamfer. Be careful though as you can burn the plastic knob if you are too agressive. It might also help to run a long 1/4" bolt through the top end of the knob to help hold it.

While 3 bolts will sufficiently hold the flange, I used 6,which gives me 3 spares should I lose one.

The Hurricane bolts are not flush to the top of the mounting plate, however, the antenna sits on top of the plate with rubber feet, which holds it above the bolt surface. If you are concerned, you can always use flat-head bolts and countersink them into the base.

Attaching the Hurricane bolts is the only possible time you would need to use a screwdriver, and I keep a Phillips-Head screwdriver in the antenna bag for this specific purpose.

To attach the antenna to the base, I used 3/16" x 1" clevis pins and Quick Disconnect cotter pins. As it turns out, the antenna simply sits on top of the base as the clevis pins "float" a bit, and do not tighten the antenna down. If you wish, you can use #10 hardware (nuts and wingnuts) to attach the antenna. Here again though, there are 4 pins used to hold the antenna down, but if you lose a pin, you can hold it down with 3 pins.

When drilling the holes for the pins, I highly recommend purchasing a 3/16" aircraft length drill bit. Otherwise, you will most likely scratch the radome with your drill chuck, likely drill the hole off-center, and perhaps damage the antenna mounting hole.

Unfortunately the 3/16" hole size in the antenna base restricts the types of fasteners. If the holes were drilled out to 1/4", you could use all sorts of spring-loaded Bimini top hardware that the boating world uses. This is certainly possible, but I would first fill the voids behind the holes in the antenna with epoxy to strengthen those areas before drilling.

I did add a couple of "Pad Eyes" to the underside of the mounting plate and bottom of the mast to assist in securing the mast.

Notes:

1. The flagpole mast was purchased at Harbor Freight. I believe the first item on the list to be the same item, however you may wish to source Harbor Freight for the item.

2. The quantities shown are actual number of items needed. Some items on the above list have a higher quantity. For example, although 6 thumb knobs are specified, they come in a 10 pack so you only need to order one of that item.

3. In addition you will need some miscellaneous hardware such as machine screws, nuts, pop-rivets, bungee cords, velcro cable ties, and other locally purchased items.

Although I consider it to be optional, I would highly recommend using Belden 1694F coax for the drop cable. Be sure you buy 1694F and not 1694A (F = flexible). The chief advantage of this cable is that it is super-flexible, designed for outdoor use, and often used in mobile Television vans where the coax is often unwound and rolled up on a frequent basis. It just lasts longer and will give you trouble free service for a long time. It does cost more - up to $1 per ft (or more), however, you are only going to need 20~30ft, so the cost for short lengths is not excessive. Also the center conductor is stranded, so you will have to use specific connectors for the cable.