Topband: Flag Supports

[Bill Gaines]

I hate giving up such a good supply for flag/pennant supports but in the interest of
my fellow top band operators I will spill the beans. I have a 5 pennant array here
with a homebrew antenna switch mounted on a 10' high 4"X4".  On all 5 pennants I 
use a fiberglass pole vault pole for support. These poles ( I now have at least 15 or 20) 
came from my local high school over a period of a few years. It seems we have an 
excellent history of state qualifiers in the pole vault so they replace a few each year. 
It cost me more for the gas to drive there than they charge for the poles and the 
school is a few blocks away. 

To mount the pennants, I take a 4' piece of inch and a half pvc pipe and drive it into 
the ground about a foot to eighteen inches the proper distance away from the center 
support. I use a piece of 2x6 over the end of the pipe and drive it in with a sledge 
hammer.  I put a bolt thru the pvc about a foot from the top to keep the fiberglass pole 
from dropping down too far. This gives me an additional two to two-and-a-half feet of 
height on the back side of the pennant. If necessary I back guy the pole with ropes for 
tension.

If you need more details I will gladly supply them off list.

Bill AD8P