K5ND Fiberglass Push-Up Mast

During my recent ARRL Learning Network presentation on six meters, a popular question was what fiberglass push-up mast I was using in my backyard and in my rover operations.

It’s a Max-Gain Systems MK-4-HD 25 foot fiberglass push-up mast along with their Heavy Duty Mast Mount with Tilt-Lock. I also have their guying system consisting of the guying rings, dacron rope, and guy rope tensioners. I purchased it in April 2018 primarily for rover operations. Here’s my overview of the mast from an earlier blog post.

Nearby you can see the full set up, without guying, on my car in early testing. I really like the solid set up and ready activation of the mast. I particularly like the teflon support in the mast mount that allows very easy rotating of the mast. Note, too, my cargo rack support system. This allows greater stability even without guys.

I did, however, encounter a few problems.

First, the fiberglass mast sections arrived nested together in a box, but I couldn’t get two of the mast sections separated. So I had to use a piece of wood to literally pound the inner tube out. Once out, I found that it could slide in and out, not quite all the way in, but at least it fit except for about 15 inches.

On contact with Max-Gain Systems they reported that a mast section can sometimes be slightly oval and would best fit with a slight turn to match the ovals. I found that to be true, but still couldn’t fully retract that particular tube. It’s now at roughly 8 inches from fully nesting. Perhaps over time and some back and forth movement, that will improve still further. [Update from August 2020 — it now fully retracts, perhaps sun and use did it.]

Second, the tilt over unit holes didn’t match the base or the mast sleeve. They were just too close together to allow the bolts to fit at all. So I used a rat-tail file to elongate the holes on the tilt over unit and get them to work. It all comes together nicely now.

In retrospect, I’m not sure I needed the tilt over unit. That’s exactly how I used my rover set up with a painter pole, but with this system the mast pushes up very nicely and no tilt over mounting is really needed. Something for you to consider if you’re thinking of purchasing this system.

I currently use the mast in my backyard. I recently used it to rove between two grids in the CQ WW VHF Contest. It allowed me to deploy my three-element Yagi at a greater height than my roof-top rotator set up. But two set ups and two tear downs were max for this old man in the heat of a Texas summer.

Hope that helps provide some insight into the mast. I like it.

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