Introducing The Tilt-N-Raise™ Antenna Mount

The Tilt-N-Raise Antenna mount was designed with portable communications, emergency communications (EmComm), and amateur radio lighthouse activators in mind. Instead of arriving at your operating site and searching for somewhere to hang your antenna from you simply insert the Tilt-N-Raise into your receiver hitch and proceed with your antenna installation. With the Tilt-N-Raise Antenna mount you simply drive to the site, tilt the mount over, insert your antenna base or antenna mast and raise the antenna up in place. The antenna will serve you well attached to the rear of your vehicle via the Tilt-N-Raise Antenna mount located in the receiver hitch of your vehicle. Now that your antenna is securely in place you can go about your business of communications. And the best part of the Tilt-N-Raise antenna mount is that no tools are required to install it or remove it. With the Tilt-N-Raise™ portable antenna mount installed you can quickly deploy your antenna and commence communicating instead of spending time on the antenna.

Why the sideways method of tilting?

Two words: safety and accessibility. Imagine your scenario, you pull up to the lighthouse parking area where you will be activating a light house. Using other mounting platforms you might wind up with your antenna mast across the driveway or street, With the Tilt-N-Raise Antenna mount you access the mount from the side of your vehicle which gives you greater access especially if you are there by yourself. With the Tilt-N-Raise Portable Antenna mount you are in full control of the antenna installation for your portable event.

Tilt Over Antenna Mount Applications

• Are you:
  • An EmComm operator?
  • An amateur radio lighthouse activator?
  • Into VHF, UHF and beyond contesting?
  • Into mountaintop operations (HF or VHF)?
  • Promoting state parks, World Wildlife Fund outing, state fairs?
  • A rover in state QSO parties & national contests?

If you answered yes to one or more of these questions then the Tilt-N-Raise antenna mount fits the ticket. You need only to drive up to your favorite operating spot, slip the Tilt-N-Raise into place along with your mast and antennas. At a full 2" the capacity of the Tilt-N-Raise is enough that you could utilize a short mast along with a rotator for your VHF/UHF arrays. See the additional information concerning antenna masts at the bottom of this page.

Maybe you are more into HF operating, possibly in the area of EmComm or HF contesting as a rover. Think of operating on a county line as a rover with a Hex Beam from K4KIO or a portable beam from SuperAntennas.com attached to your very own Tilt-N-Raise antenna mount. Why use a vertical or wire when you can run a portable beam antenna instead? Talk about an increase in multipliers!

EmComm Operations

EmComm operators have precious little time when they roll up on an emergency situation. The last thing EmComm ops should have to worry about is their antenna in terms of location as well as security. With the Tilt-N-Raise Antenna mount securely on the back of the vehicle the EmComm has one less worry about the effectiveness of their portable communications operation.

Amateur Radio & Lighthouse Activations

Amateur radio operators are a hardy bunch and those that travel to and from lighthouses and lightships to activate them are among some of the hardiest. The Tilt-N-Raise Antenna mount gives lighthouse activators a secure method to mount their antennas in weather that can be difficult.

Mobile or Portable?

The Tilt-N-Raise is not designed for mobile operation while the vehicle is moving! Given the antenna and support mast heights used in EmComm and portable radio communications it would be dangerous to move the vehicle with an antenna in the Tilt-N-Raise mount. Moving your vehicle with an antenna (or even just the mast) in the Tilt-N-Raise will likely result in the antenna/mast striking overhead objects. Or worse yet, the antenna/mast could possibly come into contact with overhead power lines. Again, do not drive your vehicle with an antenna or mast inserted into the Tilt-N-Raise antenna mount.

Our mounts will hold N6BT Antennas

Tom Schiller, N6BT (founder of Force 12, Inc. and former owner of the Force 12 product line) produces two fine portable antennas that will fit on our portable antenna mounts.

The Q-52 Yagi standard hardware can accommodate masts from 1.5-2" OD. The same goes for the Q-51 rotary dipole.

The Q-52 is only 15 pounds and under 2sqft windload, so very friendly.

 

Click here for the latest copy of our instruction manual.

Design & Construction

The Tilt-N-Raise antenna mount was designed and built for simplicity, strength, and solid performance. All design work was accomplished through the use of AutoCAD which enabled us to keep everything within tight tolerances.

Construction of the Tilt-N-Raise is made using only quality materials such as 6061 and 6063 aluminum, stainless steel and PVC. The aluminum parts are made from:

• 1/2" thick 6061 aluminum plate
• 1.25" x 1.25" 6061 aluminum solid bar ( 1..25" model)
• 2.00" x 2.00" 6063 aluminum square tubing( 2.00 " model)
• 6061 Schedule 40 aluminum pipe (not the cheaper tubing)

For the clamping mechanism, ground lug, and radial bolts we only use stainless steel hardware for the bolts, washers, and nuts.

Last but not least the insulator portion of the Tilt-N-Raise is made from Schedule 40 PVC pipe. Some may argue against the need of this insulator but we felt it was needed being that the aluminum used has electrical conductivity that is 40% of copper.

Powdercoating of the Tilt-N-Raise antenna mount is now an option due to price increases in raw materials. Just like everything else in today's economy the prices of the metal, welding, and powdercoating have gone up quite a bit as compared to when we first started building these fold-over antenna mounts. Instead of just raising the prices we decided to dispense with the powdercoating so that we can keep the prices as they are. Powdercoating can be done at an additional charge but will no longer be a standard feature of the Tilt-N-Raise portable antenna mount.

To order the Tilt-N-Raise all you need do is order link at the top of this page. Current pricing for the 1.25" Tilt-N-Raise is $239.95 ($259.95 for the 2.00" model) in Sky White or Gloss Black.

Shipping charges for the Continental United States is $25.00. Additional colors of powdercoating as well as shipping outside the Continental United State are handled on a case by case basis.

Grounding & Radials

It would be elementary to say that the vehicle will not serve as a ground for the Tilt-N-Raise mount considering the application of powdercoating on the aluminum. And then there is the additional insulation offered by the PVC piping inside the vertical support.

There are some that will claim that the vehicle that the Tilt-N-Raise is mounted in will act as a ground plane for your antenna. We could not find any information to prove this point. So we opted to drill 4 holes at the bottom of the vertical tube to allow for the use of temporary radials to provide the ground plane necessary should they be needed. As for a good ground for the mount, you can use the grounding lug at the lower gusset support of the mount to connect a ground wire to whatever ground rod you use when operating portable. Do not assume the antenna mount will provide any sort of grounding to the vehicle as it is highly unlikely with the amount of powdercoating applied to the mount.

A quick note about why we chose 2" for the mast size for the Tilt-N-Raise antenna mount. As this mount was designed for portable (not mobile) operations we investigated the most popular pushup masts on the market at the time the design process started. Out of all of these we found the Rohn® push-up masts to be between 1.50" and 2.00". The MFJ and HyGain push up masts are 2.00". Out of these an assumption was made that the Rohn® masts might not be as common due to their size when folded as well as their weight. Below is a short chart of the antenna masts we investigated.

• Rohn® H20, 1.50" for bottom section.
• Rohn® H30, 1.75" for bottom section.
• Rohn® H40, 2.00" for bottom section.
• MFJ model 1908, 43 foot and 2.00" at bottom.
• HyGain® ATN-65, 65 foot and 2.00" at bottom.

eHam.net Reviews

Our first eHam review! It is under the heading of Antennas: HF Portable (not mobile), check it out and feel free to add to the review if you have seen or used one of our portable mounts.