[TowerTalk] utility poles for antenna supports

[Cal Zethmayr]

My very first antenna support as a Novice in 1954 was a 60' power pole. 
I got lucky, one of the members of the DuPage Amateur Radio Club worked for the power company that was replacing the poles in our neighborhood.    He let the crew use their rig to drill the hole and set the pole for me.  Actually they had laid the pole on the ground in my back yard and let me have the weekend to work on it.   I drilled in some 12" lag bolts altering their positions on the side of the pole. This became the way I climbed it. Course I was a healthy young 15 then!   

I had bolted a two foot piece of pipe at the top.  Then I put up a 20 element two meter beam, (Riverside 5 over 5's  two sets stacked side by side).
also used the pole to support an inverted V for 80/40.

Long after I had gone on to college etc.,  that pole was still there 15 years later, being used for a TV antenna!
Cal Zethmayr
W4GMH