Speaker and PVC Stand for Elk 2M/440L5 Antenna

What with the ARRL June VHF contest coming up this weekend and the weather being warmer than 12"+ of fresh powder experienced in January, I finished buying and putting together the right PVC parts to hold my Elk 2M/440L5 LPDA antenna stably above head height. It's composed of a cheap speaker stand with the speaker post inverted, 6' of 3/4" schedule 40 PVC pipe, a 3/4" to threaded to threaded to 1" fitting pair, and 2' of 1" PVC to fit the stock bracket of the Elk. Rotation is, of course, of the armstrong type. No additional handle required.

Assembled stand setup in the apartment stairwell. 6' of RG-58 for scale hanging from the Elk antenna core (no elements mounted). Gets some decent reach!

More pictures here after the break:

The upper portion of the stand showing the PVC fittings for the mast and connection to the Elk fittings.

Popping the lower fittings off allows for an easy reach to bring the assembly down in pieces.

With the way the fittings are arranged on the Elk, it's almost trivial to reach up and swing the antenna between vertical and horizontal polarization. This should come in handy trying to alternate between long shots at sideband and (maybe) chip shots on FM, depending on who I can find to point at.

With the forecast being rain for half the days of the weekend, I won't be deploying this on Saturday for the start of the contest, but instead putting in my effort on Sunday!

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