While wandering around in Harbor Freight I ran across a telescoping aluminum flag pole for $60. My first thought was I wonder if that will hold an antenna, so I brought it home with me!

Then came the how to make this stand up (possibly with complete disregard for safety) phase. The bottom section of the pole is 2 3/8" outside diameter. Guess what else is the exact same size.. Chain link fence posts. So off to Home Depot to get some fence post bracket thingies and a few screws.

A little bit of bending and drilling and measuring and screwing and we're done. $75 all in for a telescoping antenna mast!

Now I just have to wait a couple days for the antenna to get here so I can see how it works. I think I'm going to add a guy wire to it just in case. The wind coming off the hill is often over 50mph (almost daily) and I don't want this thing falling into the neighbors driveway if it fails.

10 April 2021 - Update:

Well the antenna arrived. It's a Nagoya BA-6100E. Seems like it will be decent. SWR is 2 at 148Mhz and 1.8 at 440Mhz. A little higher than I'd like but no complaints. Unfortunately the coax seems to be going on a tour of California instead of coming to my house like it's supposed to. So for now I have a tall pole with an antenna on top of it that I can't hook up to anything.

73, kk7tll (w7lte)