Pole Position

Today i had to do some shopping. A trip to the post office to collect the pressure sleeve UHF connectors i had ordered (finally got fed up of poor connections due to trying to solder braid to normal plugs) and to get animal feeds.

Now, i get my animal feed from a place called Hillam Feeds, a few miles away. So, with the car loaded up with sacks of feed, plastic containers etc, i headed back. As i passed a small building site, where some nice looking houses were going up, i noticed a young lad loading short scaffolding sections on a wagon. I slammed on the brakes, reversed back, and went over and asked who the scaffolder was. After explaining why i wanted scaffold poles, he went to talk to his gaffer. The gaffer then phoned the boss, and about five minutes later, told me "a tenner each", so with the help of the young lad i roped two 21ft galvanised scaffold poles onto the roofbars of my Fiesta, handed over £20 and started the careful drive home. Its only when carrying such a load that you realise how bumpy the roads are, and i had to go at 20mph to avoid the poles starting to bounce about. Luckily, the whole journey is over lightly used rural roads. So now im sorted for mast poles! All i need to do now is decide on the actual method of mounting and get the job done, and my 6m and 2m beams will be up in the air.

To that end, getting the pole attached to the house, i had a chat with the chaps at Brymar. Brymar are a satellite TV company, and i had to visit them anyway for a splitter and some sat coax and F connectors, for the wifes small works project of getting DTV into the kitchen. I had to get some self amalgamating tape as well as mines nearly run out, blimey thats expensive stuff, but its a real must have, its either that or Denso, and i dont think the XYL would like me using that! Im now wondering wether to go with the T & K brackets, which i think are a bit too far a stand off, or get some A frame brackets, that spread the load further out, and i think would be less pulled by the wind loading. If it can hold a 1m solid dish up in the wind, i think it can handle a couple of VHF beams!