My DIY Drive-On Antenna Mast For POTA Activations

I have been doing POTA activations for a few years now, and I have been using an antenna mast that attaches on to my Reese hitch. It which works well. It doesn’t go straight out like most mast mounts do for Reese hitches but rather off to the side of my Jeep. One of my goals for a POTA activation is to have everything in my Jeep without loading anything. However, I have been known to forget my antenna mast mount for the Reese hitch.

Also as one of my POTA goals, I want to have everything I need for an activation in my Jeep ready to go. This way I don’t have to load anything, or forget anything. Since it is already in the Jeep.

My Mast Mount Off Of A Reese Hitch

I have had several people on ask about my mast mount using a Reese Hitch. So I have added a photo below. However this is for reference. This post isn’t about this mast mount. This is about a drive-on antenna mast mount that I can always carry with me in the Jeep.

This antenna mast mount uses two Reese hitch extensions that are welded on to a piece of 2″ square tube. It comes apart in two pieces. The vertical pipe on the left is welded on to a 2″ piece of square tube that fits into the Reese hitch extension. It works very well. The best part is that I can drive to a park and open the hatchback as if the antenna mount wasn’t there.

But like I said earlier, I have been known to forget to attach this antenna mount. Thankfully I also carry an End Fed Half Wave antenna as a spare antenna. The EFHW antenna seems to be a little better performer than the vertical wires I use. But it takes a lot longer to set up my EFHW than it does the Spiderbeam mast.

My vertical wire antennaa works quite well. And I will continue to use them as my main POTA antennas. For me the time it takes to set up an EFHW vs the Spiderbeam mast, the trade-off between a longer more difficult setup vs speed and ease isn’t worth it. I know a lot of you will disagree and that is fine. that’s just how I have chosen to run my activations.