For our July Fourth Safety Watch this year, I used my dual-band mobile antenna on a ground plane mount on a camera tripod. I’d purchased a Nagoya GPK-01 NMO Ground Plane Kit ($28) to test my NMO mobile antenna, because my mag mount seemed flaky.
As I was drifting off to sleep one night, I thought that the 1/4-20 screw on my camera tripod might fit the holes on the ground plane kit. It did, so now I have a robust, free-standing, dual-band antenna for em-comm use.
The antenna is a Comet SBB-5NMO with 3 dB of gain on 2 m. Not a flamethrower, but a solid antenna when used with a good ground plane.
The radials unscrew from the mount, so the ground plane kit packs up small.
Our station was up on a hill, so we had great line of sight to the whole valley. We ran a mobile rig (Yaesu FT-8900R) at 50 W from a battery, so we had a great signal. We could also hear the other stations clearly, so our station was net control.
The only thing I’ll change next time is to use 1/4-20 wingnuts instead of regular nuts. I might paint them orange, too. I was sure that I would drop a nut in the grass and never find it.
And yes, that is a classic Gitzo Reporter aluminum tripod. If needed, I could extend the center column to get the radials above eye level.
Most Casual Observer 
Looks like a nice set-up, Walter. Mike, KEØGZT
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Walter, did you fabricate the right angle bracket, or purchase it? Can you give a bit more detail on the bracket?
Bill W4WWB
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The right angle bracket is part of the NMO base mount kit.
You can get a much better view of the bracket at the product page on Amazon.
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Thank you, Walter. I have ordered the kit. Your approach is a good alternative to the mag mount antenna currently in my gokit.
Bill W4WWB
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I like this a lot and solves a problem for portable ops on the higher freqiuencies.
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I’ve updated this with red rubber balls on the tips of the radials so they are less likely to poke out an eye. I got a dozen of them as car antenna toppers.
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