I’ve been using a 20ft. flagpole mast from Harbor Freight for several years with the Buddipole antenna. It’s strong and holds the antenna weight well, but it’s also heavy and I don’t like the twist lock design to raise the mast. I purchased a GigaDude 25ft. mast last year, but hadn’t tried the Buddipole antenna on it. The GigaDude is very light and I like the clamp locks much better. The Buddipole isn’t very heavy, but does hang off each side by ~12ft.
To mount the Buddipole on top of the GigaDude, I found 1/2″ pvc was too big and 1/2″ copper pipe was too small to fit in the top clamp. Although, the 1/2″ copper coupler fits perfectly. I used a ~4″ piece of copper pipe and soldered an adapter with the correct 1/2″ threads to fit the Buddipole center mount. Then, I drove a coupler right up to it from the open end of the pipe. Finally, I soldered another coupler on the end of the pipe section. This fits and clamps snugly into the top of the GigaDude.
The first deployment was with a group of fellow hams at a POTA meet-up. The mast does sway some, more than the Harbor Freight mast did. I wouldn’t leave it up in heavy winds, but it held the Buddipole like a champ. Setup of the antenna on 20m, tuning was the same at 25ft. as previously done at 20ft. The performance was great, getting us a successful activation.
