Take a look at my saucer vertical mount. A combination of parts recycling, 3D printing and experimenting. Ready to test, I hope.
Okay, well I have constructed my flying saucer resonators for 30 and 80 meters (top right) and collected all the parts for my short saucer vertical mount. My mounting location is around 50 feet from the house in a green space. Since I am just experimenting, I settled on a cheap and dirty mount.
We recently replaced our broken Costco wind catcher. I have reused the old mounting base which hammers into the ground, as shown above. Both the steel mounting pipe and my aluminum antenna tube are ¾ inch diameter. So, I 3D printed some plastic clamps, which used with ¼ inch hardware, lock the aluminum tube vertically. Clamps are spaced at six inches apart.
Next, I made a plastic junction box for connecting the coax cable and ground radials. My box holds a UHF chassis mount SO-239 socket, and some binding posts for attaching radials. The inside of the box is shielded with conductive paint.
So far, this mount has held up through 50 m.p.h. wind gusts in a recent storm.
For now, the radials are a pair of 24 foot 14 AWG insulated wires. These are roughly resonant on 30 meters. I just have these lying on the surface for now, with a few wire staples to hold them down.
Saucer Vertical Mount Description
My two saucer resonators are attached at the top of the 8 foot tube, spaced about five inches apart. Electrical connections between the saucers and the antenna, as well as the coax center conductor, are mechanical. Basically, a tightened quarter inch screw holding on to the aluminum tube. You can’t solder copper to aluminum.
I tested DC conductivity and isolation with my multimeter VOM.
My fifty feet of RG8 coax runs to my main antenna switch at the side of the house, beside the shack. I use remote control relay switching to select between beam, dipole, and now, vertical antennas. Up next, a smoke test with my NanoVNA.