Portable antenna/node/camera supports

There are plenty of more expensive (but better) alternatives, but for easy and cheap... I prefer a Home Depot bucket half-full of cement with a galvanized pipe set into it. See the attached diagram.

Andre, K6AH

Everybody builds something out of PVC piping. That is always fun.

If you have an available fence post or street sign, you can strap an aluminum tubing mast to it with a heavy nylon tie wrap or two (emphasis on heavy).

 

Ken

 

I've had good results with the following:

1) DirecTV tripod stand.  I found this for as low as $20:  http://www.amazon.com/feet-Satellite-Tripod-Mount-2-Inch/dp/B0043OAI9M 

2) 23'  or longer aluminum painter pole:  http://www.homedepot.com/p/Mr-Longarm-Pro-Lok-23-ft-Adjustable-3-Section-Extension-Pole-2324/100177392?tag=aredn-20 

3) ipCam mounted under pizza pan lid with medical clamp and feed with cat5 POE.  Lighter weight than the typical outdoor ipCam.  I've had one in the elements for 2 years now still going strong.

These are relatively light weight and with a NanoStation on top, can be extended up to get over buildings.  Takes about 3 min to setup.  I have a 35aH AGM battery and if I need it to be 24x7, can bring along a solar panel and charge controller.

I use an antenna tripod:

a painters pole...

a field box with 7ah battery, fuse, switch, and powerpole distribution

I've also been playing with an extendable painter's pole and some PVC that I picked up at Lowe's. It has a large threaded connector on the top to attach different types of paint rollers. Budipole makes an adapter for the large threads on a painter's pole to convert it to a screw-on 1/2" PVC pipe connector, so now you can build any kind of mount you want out of PVC sprinkler pipe. http://www.buddipole.com/centeead.html I mounted a Nanostation M5 on a short piece of PVC with some zip ties. The PVC was very slick, so I wrapped it with some sticky cling wrap plastic to give it some grip (it's what was laying around at the time :). I used a threaded connector on the bottom. I also took a tall camera tripod and added a threaded pipe connector to the camera mounting base. Now I can move the M5 between the pole or the tripod, depending on need.