Portable Hitch-mounted Antenna Mast

As a weekend project a couple weeks ago, I built a 20 foot portable antenna mast that will mount on my pickup’s hitch receiver. Today I decided to do a stability test with the truck on level ground. I had previously tested the mast when the truck wasn’t level, and the mast flexed quite a bit. On level ground stability seems much improved.

I took an old hitch ball mount and chopped the end off, leaving me with just a piece of square tubing. I then welded a 2 foot section of quarter inch thick, 2 inch wide angle iron lengthwise to the tubing. To the interior of the angle iron I welded a section of 1 1/4 inch Schedule 40 black iron pipe to act as a receiver for the antenna mast. I left the threading on the bottom of the pipe and extended it below the angle iron so I could thread a cap onto it. Normally the antenna mast runs all the way through the receiver and rests on the ground, but in situations where the property owner doesn’t allow that, threading a cap on the pipe allows the mast to be completely supported by the truck and hitch receiver without touching the ground.

The mast sections are made of 1 inch schedule 40 black iron pipe. I bought 2 10-foot sections of pipe, chopped the threads off both ends, then chopped the pipe in half for a total of 4 5-foot sections. I then took 1 foot sections of 1 1/4 inch pipe, slipped them halfway onto the top of each mast section to act as a slip coupling, then welded the bottom of the coupling to the mast. Since the couplings were a little loose fitting over the mast sections, I drilled a few holes in the couplings and plug welded them to the mast to provide some additional support.

To ensure the mast sections fit snugly in the couplings, I welded some small beads in the bottom of each mast section and ground them down until they fit snugly. This should keep the mast stable in windy conditions.

My welding isn’t the best, and there probably are cheaper ways to obtain a portable antenna mast, but it was a fun little project that gave me an excuse to do some metal fab.

Now I just need to get an antenna to mount to the top of it…