[TowerTalk] Telescoping flagpole as home/portable vertical antenna?

[Richard Thorne]

I went to Lowes today to look at their flag poles.  They have a 20' 
model made of 2" aluminum in 5 4' sections with swagged ends.  It comes 
with everything necessary including the flag.

The interesting part was how they mount it in the ground.  They include 
a section of plastic tubing about 12" to 18" long that is placed in a 
hole with concrete.  This would insulate the aluminum from the ground.

For $128 it looks like a pretty good deal.  On the other hand for the 
same money you can order one from F12 that has a section of fiberglass 
to insulate the pole from ground, but it would keep the pole above 
ground v.s. the Lowes model that would have a portion of the pole in the 
ground.  Not sure if this would make any difference or not.

I believe the F12 model is 16' long v.s. the Lowes model of 20' but it 
does have some of the pole in the ground.

I'm trying to come up with a stealth system for home so I can run my rig 
here.  I have a remote controlled station but I can't use my cw paddles 
or run the digital modes easily.

Rich - N5ZC

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Alan NV8A (ex. AB2OS)" <nv8a at att.net>
To: "towertalk reflector" <towertalk at contesting.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 29, 2005 2:27 PM
Subject: [TowerTalk] Telescoping flagpole as home/portable vertical 
antenna?


> Yesterday I saw a display of telescoping anodized Al flagpoles that I 
> wondered about as possibly being suitable for use as a shunt-fed 
> vertical antenna at home and for Field Day or other portable 
> operations.
>
> These are available in 16', 20' and 25' models and are designed to 
> drop into a mounting socket embedded in the ground. The sections lock 
> into place by means of spring-loaded pins.
>
> The contraindications for using such a device as an antenna are the 
> difficulty of
>
> (a) getting a sufficiently good electrical contact between the 
> sections
>
> and
>
> (b) finding a suitable feed point without having to scrape off the 
> anodizing at many different points in search of a position that works.
>
> Other comments?
>
> Alan NV8A
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