“The Bow” – Rigid Mount for Slim Jim Antenna

First, I have to thank Joe, N9TAX, for all the help that he has provided me in a few projects that I have been working on.

If you are interested in purchasing some great 2m and/or 70cm rollup, portable/base station antenna’s, please visit 2way Electronix. To learn more about Joe, here is a link to his personal website.

I started looking for a portable antenna that I could use on my HT (Kenwood F6A) and base station (Yaesu FT-897D). While surfing the net one day I came across Joe’s website at 2way Electronix. After much consideration I purchased the Dual band 2m 70cm Slim Jim Antenna with 16′ rg-58. The payment was easy and it arrived within a few days. The quality of this antenna is excellent, Joe has left nothing out in designing and making his products. I would highly recommend anything that Joe makes, you will not be disappointed.

I knew from the beginning that I wanted to mount the antenna in a somewhat permanent way, but still make it portable if needed. I have a difficult time reaching most of the repeaters in my area from where I live, but not anymore! While surfing around Joe’s personal website I came across a picture of a mount that what just what I was looking for and it fit my needs exactly. A new project which probably took me about 30 minutes to complete once I had everything together that I needed. I am a visual person so I decided that I would expand on Joe’s description on how to make “The Bow” for others out there like me.

List of materials:

1 – 10 foot 3/4 PVC pipe (I had the store cut it into two pieces, for me so that I could get it home), now I had two pieces, one 6 foot and the other 4 foot
2 – 90 degree elbows
1 – 3/4 PVC cap just to finish off the top end
15 – Zip ties
PVC cleaner and glue

The first thing was to put the cap on the top of the 6′ piece and drill a hole for the zip ties about 1″ below the cap. There is already one punched into the top of the 450 ohm ladder line, but I made another so that I could double zip tie it to the pole and it allow for less stress one the original one once you “bow” the PVC pipe. I double zip tied the top portion of the antenna. I am not sure if this is really needed or not, but I live in Oklahoma and it gets very hot here in the summer and I am not sure how the zip ties where going to hold up to the sun/heat.

Next, I measured up about 8″ from the bottom of the 6′ section and drilled another hole. Very carefully I bowed the 6′ section and again double zip tied the bottom portion of the antenna. I used the hole in the 450 ohm ladder line where Joe has the coax zipped tied to it.

I installed the 90 degree elbows next utilizing a 2″ piece that I cut off the 4′ section to combine the two. A little bit of care has to be taken here to get them to line up just right. I installed the first elbow in the 6′ section at a 90 degree angle from the bow, then added the 2″ piece to it. Next was probably the hardest part. That was to ensure that I got the angle just right when installing the other 90 degree elbow so that the antenna and the bottom half or the mounting point of the antenna where parallel with each other. After a few dry runs and a couple pencil marks I added the glue and made it permanent. I then added the 4′ section to the bottom and added a few zip ties just to hold the coax in place. I will eventually cut the 4′ lower section down to size to where I want to mount it, but I wanted to give myself plenty of room to work with.

Here are a few pictures of the finished project along with my beautiful wife, Corby. I hope this helps anyone that wants to build “The Bow”.

If you have any questions, please leave me some feedback.

73, Dave K8GCU