Mounting an OTA antenna on a pole in the ground (1 Viewer)

[Jim517]

Has anyone done this? What type and size pole did you use? I assume set in concrete?

We currently have our antenna mounted to one of our deck's 4X4 posts, using a telescopic pole. The antenna is about 16' above the ground.

We are thinking of building a 3 season porch, and if we do, we will need to move the antenna. I'd like to move it to the side of our house, on a pole in the ground.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Clinton McClure]

You can sink the pole in concrete if you want to, but it doesn’t have to be. Mine isn’t and it’s been in place for at least 25 years. You just want to make sure it is strapped tight enough so the mast doesn’t rotate when a strong wind blows and make sure you sink a grounding rod and ground the antenna and coax cable to that.

Above is a sample drawing I pulled off the internet. In the drawing, both the antenna and coax are grounded to the electrical service ground but my antenna isn’t anywhere near my electrical service so I just sank a grounding rod near the base of the antenna.

 

[Jim517]

Thanks. So how did you do yours? Did you use gravel or something instead of concrete? How high in the air is your antenna?

 

[dana martin]

hey Jim,

have a question, have you had DirectTv or one of the other providers that put a satellite dish on the house?

Cut the cord a few years back, and used the mounting that the satellite company put on the roof, perfect location and even used their wiring, coaxial and already grounded.

 

[John Dirk]

hey Jim,

have a question, have you had DirectTv or one of the other providers that put a satellite dish on the house?

Cut the cord a few years back, and used the mounting that the satellite company put on the roof, perfect location and even used their wiring, coaxial and already grounded.

Yep. I did the same thing years ago and in my previous home.

 

[dana martin]

cut the cord and never looked back, had both DirectTV and Cox Cable call and make all kinds of offers, saying they could bet what i have, i told both if i can get 42 channels and then have them send me money monthly, that can beat what i have, the only way to beat free is to pay me to have their service, haven't had any calls back since, and i love it, that and the channel master OTA DVR, pretty much set as i have lots on disc if i ever wanted something specific

 

[Jim517]

hey Jim,

have a question, have you had DirectTv or one of the other providers that put a satellite dish on the house?

Cut the cord a few years back, and used the mounting that the satellite company put on the roof, perfect location and even used their wiring, coaxial and already grounded.

Yes, many years ago, but the dish was on a short pole, on the wrong side of the house for our antenna.

 

[dana martin]

is the mounting bracket that they installed on the roof still there? if so you can use that, the pole will give you a basic size, OD to look for a replacement to move to the proper side of the house, of course after moving the bracket you will need to RTV the holes where it was originally mounted. At this point i thing that the pole its' self shouldn't be over 6 feet in length, especially if you have a extremely steep angle on the roof.

also it becomes a two person job, we used walkie-talkie's to make sure that i was aligned the correct way for the most channels with out interruptions. there are apps for your phone if you wanted to go that route, but i found http://www.tvfool.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=75 to work quite well because it takes in the topography of the surrounding area in account and makes recommendations, which can be useful if you planned to upgrade to a larger antenna.

i am assuming that you are looking at getting stations from Milwaukee, and possibly some of the Chicago stations as well?


hope any of that helps.

by the way, me doing that started a trend i think in the neighborhood, within the next month, must have seen 20-30 new antennas up on the roofs, same thing happened when i moved in, and on day two installed my American flag on the porch, in the next week others started to do the same.

 

[Jim517]

Thanks, but I don't want the antenna on the roof. The dish was on a pole on the side of the house, in the ground.

 

[dana martin]

did that when i was stationd at Great Lakes Naval Base,

 

[Clinton McClure]

Thanks. So how did you do yours? Did you use gravel or something instead of concrete? How high in the air is your antenna?

Hi, Jim.

My pole is about 20’ 6” tall and strapped to the side of my storage shed away from the house. It’s really a 21’ aluminum pole which is made of three 7’ pieces joined together. When I put up the pole, I dug a 6” deep trench from the pole to my house and ran 3/4” (or it might have been 1”, I don’t remember) pvc pipe underground to protect the coax cable. The pole is sitting in the end of the trench so the base of it is also 6” below ground but I just filled in with dirt since the pole is aluminum.

 

[Jim517]

Thanks. Good idea.