mount for low-cost 2m ground plane antenna

thingiverse

My first goal was to make something that could easily be stored in a closet or even tucked away in the back window of a pickup, all while keeping costs as low as possible using materials I already had lying around. To build this mount, you'll need just a few things: an SO-239, some cable, a piece of wire, and a small bit of 1"/25mm PVC tubing. This simple setup should allow for decent results - in my tests, it's barely scratched 1.0 SWR on both my Yaesu 897d display and my Elecraft W2 tester. Here's how to put everything together: simply take a look at the photos to see exactly what I did. This mount fits snugly into 1"/25mm O.D. PVC pipe, so if you've got different diameter tubing lying around, just resize the lower half of the mount accordingly. To get your ground plane wires pointing in roughly the right direction, use tension from the cable running inside the PVC tube to guide them. After picking a center frequency, snip the wires down to 1-2 cm above what you're aiming for, and then slowly trim them while keeping an eye on your SWR. For best results, I used 1/16" stainless welding rod - it's strong enough to hold a bend but light enough not to be too awkward to work with using a pair of pliers.