Fence Top Rail Antenna Mast

Strength goes up rapidly with increases in diameter.

Fence top rail antenna mast.

My main mast is 1 5 8 ss 40 industrial top rail. Lmr 600 will be used for the feed line. Lew french kcã uer gave me this idea. I bought 3 screw in anchors and some wire line for the guys.

It goes into a 10 foot tripod though and uses two sets of guy wires. It is still up and my wife s aunt still has tv 4 years later. I also found out that 1 3 8 top rail comes in ss 40 but the fence company next door doesn t carry it. For the sizes you mention the strengths might be close mainly because the emt diameter of 2 inches versus the top rail which is probably 1 315 inches.

In your case the ss 20 would be minimal. One inch or one and a quarter inch works well and is stiff enough for a small tv antenna a discone or a small vertical. Components for chain link fencing are inexpensive. Emt thin wall conduit works just fine for small antennas.

Keep the total length of mast under 10 feet and you ll do fine. It is good to try to minimize the mast diameter in the vicinity of a yagi antenna particularly uhf. Made from galvanized steel this top rail connects to terminal posts with rail ends and brace bands. Lew showed me how one end on each is tapered to fit into the next pole.

I used 3 d rings like on a dog s collar and a hose clamp for the top end mounts for the guys. Our yardgard 1 3 8 in x 10 ft. Just don t use tubing it is thin. Three 10 feet sticks of top rail are used as the mast so the base of the antenna will be at 30 feet.

The antenna will be mounted on a 1 1 2 inch chain link fence top rail. It is quite stout. I used two 15 or 16 ft top pipes for a tv antenna mast. Creating antenna masts using chain link fence top rail.

The half and three quarters inch are too small so i d suggest staying away from that. This is a bit overkill but the feed line and connectors are already on hand.