[TowerTalk] Homemade portable mast

[john at kk9a.com]

For years I brought a homebrew mast to the Carribean to support a 3el  
HF beam. Mine was about 25' high and a constant diameter with  
couplers.  Each piece was 4' long around the 2 /2 diameter that you  
suggested. Yes it was heavy but it worked well and back then luggage  
was mostly free. Since your 6 foot pieces exceed the largest allowable  
luggage size I wonder how the airlines will handle this now and what  
the cost would be? I know that heavy luggage has become very  
expensive. A golf bag used to be acceptable free luggage and it was  
easy to walk past customs but I haven't done that in a long time.   
Another option is just purchase pipe in Tanzania.

John KK9A



Alex Malyava K2BB wrote

Hi all.
I need to put together a portable mast for 6m beam to be used during our
Zanzibar trip in November... the beam is pretty heavy - 6M8GJ, 8 elements
on 43’ long boom.
It needs to be 20-24’ tall...
How bad are green aluminum 4’ military poles?
I have plenty of them at home...
As an option - I can buy 4 telescopic 6061 aluminum tubes with .120 walls,
let’s say 2 1/2, 2 1/4, 2 and 1 3/4”, each 6’ long.
This one will be strong for sure, but will eat 21 pound of luggage and cost
about $150, while the green poles are $0.00 and only 13 lbs...

Thanks,
Alex K2BB