Are you looking for an inexpensive way to mount your J-Pole antenna or other lightweight amateur radio antenna? The Digital Broadcast Satellite (DBS) dish antenna mounts are a great way to mount your antenna to a house, mast, tower. And the best part is with a little asking around, you may even get the mounts and brackets for free.

CM-3099-4The J-Mount is the lower half of a DBS antenna system. The bracket is often lag screwed into the side or roof of a structure and the DSB dish is attached to the top half. Since these dish systems need to be aligned with the satellites parked in geostationary orbit, the mounts and brackets offer a fair about of maneuverability and flexibility in their mounting. Even though they are constructed out of thin walled tubular steel, they’re strong enough to hold single or dual band omni antenna, or a small yagi.

You can screw the mount into the side of your house or to a wood post and attach an antenna to top. Or with a couple of U-Bolts the mount can be attached to the side of a tower or mast. They give just enough clearance to use the 2 meter J-Pole antenna or 2 meter Slim Jim Antenna along the side of a tower.

If you have DBS television service in your house, you can utilize your existing mount by stacking the J-Pole above the dish. Since the frequency range is different and the signals are outside the focused aperture of the dish itself, the VHF/UHF signals transmitted from the antenna won’t interfere with your satellite service.

This duplex has three mounts installed on the side of the house. Two are unused and one (possibly) still in service.

This duplex has three mounts installed on the side of the house. Two are unused and one (possibly) still in service.

The best part of using satellite dish J-Mounts is with a little asking around you can score them for next to nothing. Look for rental duplexes or apartment complexes with unused dishes. When a tenet moves, they will take the satellite receiver, but leave the dish behind. Property managers and landlords often consider these dishes to be nuisances and if properly approached, will welcome you to  remove them. Finding the owner/manager may take a little work, but could be as easy as calling the number on the ‘For Rent’ sign in the window or looking up the address on your county’s online property tax records.

Barring that, you can often score the mounts, either used or unused, at hamfests for only a couple of bucks. I’ve even seen the dishes and mounts along the curb on trash day and/or spring large item cleanup and will grab the mount if I can. But you need to be fast as the roving steel scrappers will snap up any dish lying along the side of the road.

 

 

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