I decided I wanted to put a ham stick up on a 10-foot mast I have standing off my shed. I figured this should be easy. Just buy a Pole clamp mount with a 3/8’s fitting designed for a 2″ mast. Well not so easy for the cheap ham. I really only found one that would have done the job. Which I feel is really odd. don’t understand why this type of mount is rare. But anyway, I did find what I wanted. It came in the form of the Moonraker PTM-38 Pole Clamp. Which is listed for $28. Nice and affordable and a great quality to. Perfect for the job.

However, there is a catch of course. and by no means am i holding it against Moonraker. it’s a great product. The issue is Its manufactured in England and consequently shipped from there. Costing for regular shipping $60 additional. Which would not be too bad if i had other items to buy from. But I didn’t. So, me the cheap ham scours the internet. Spending hours looking for someone who has already imported the mounts in bulk. just to save on shipping. No Joy.

Next step find a similar mount. Also, no joy. the closest i found was a mount designed for Starlink I think. The mount was perfect. except for where you would be putting the 3/8s mount. The bracket has a big hole making it impossible to just drill a hole and add the mount to it. It would have been perfect at a cost of $12. I think the whole is there because Starlink fits into the star shaped whole to prevent is from rotating.

In the below image you can see the star shaped cut out in the mount. Which is why I had to add the aluminum plate.

So, this bracket wasn’t going to work, or was it? Well after spending more time searching the internet for the unicorn mount and failing. I decided to buy the Starlink bracket and retrofit it.

The plan was to cut a square piece of metal and screw it to the top of the bracket. then add the 3/8s mount. Sounds simple. Well, it was except finding a small square of metal. at first i looked around the shop for something I could cut and fit on top. Admittedly there were many options but didn’t have tools to easily cut the metal down smoothly and do it correctly. I even considered using old cook pans. many options would have worked. Might not have been pretty but would have worked. On the odd chance I decided to search amazon for a pre-cut piece of 1/8 thickness aluminum. In the past I’ve bought large sheets for other projects, and it worked great. What I found was a 12″x12″ 1/8 sheet of aluminum. I might have been able to get 6×6 or smaller. However, I realized could if i used the full plate un-cut I could attach radials to it as well.

So, I marked up the plate and drilled the holes into to match those of the bracket. Then added a 3/8s hole in the center for the 3/8s mount.

I believe I still spent almost as much. (considering the time spent probably more) My costs were:

  • 12″ x 12″ 1/8 aluminum $16
  • Bracket $15
  • 3/8’s mount $14
  • Screws bolts and washers $5

Total spent: $50

If I ordered it from Moonraker, it would have been $27 for the mount and $60 for shipping plus tax. About $80. Not a bad savings. Plus, I can add radial to my design. the real cost was time consumed building it. Which probably took 3 hours. Not including parts sourcing. For someone who is handier at things, this project can be done in less than a half an hour. Did i save money probably not but i did get some beginners experience fabricating a mounting. Well, most wouldn’t even consider it fabrication.

Focusing back on the Moonraker PTM-38 Pole Clamp Mount. It’s a great looking mount. I would have loved to use it. But to pay $60 for standard shipping made it a no go. I don’t understand why no companies like DX Engineering, GigaParts or Ham Radio Outlet carry it. I think some of them do offer other Moonraker products.

Finished Pole Mount

<- Top of mount

Bottom of mount ->

Below are affiliate links to the parts I used to build my pole mount:

As always this is a hobby, so I try to limit the time spent on these articles. The article is probably full or typos and misspelling and other errors. Please feel free to comment on the articles or let me know of any corrections I need to make. Some links are Affiliate links meaning I may get compensated for purchases made.

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