Hi Mike, I buy "Dural" (thick wall) alloy scaffold poles from the local SGB
(Scaffoldin Great Britain Ltd....see yellow pages) depot who will sell
single poles quite happily. The local 2-way radio supplier buys aerial poles
in that way for taxi aerials and other PMR installations. I used to have an
old Escort which still had a gutter so I had a pair of ladder-racks and
could put two poles on that. The over-hang required a red flag, or I put a
small trailer on the back to "cover " the over-hang. Delievery will cost but
drop in and talk because you might get one dropped off when a delivery is
passing as timeing is probably not important to you. The local depot staff
here are very helpful. You will probably be looking at about £2 a foot
including VAT these days.

The problem is that the longest scaffold pole is 6m nominal (about 20 feet)
The plus point is that 1.5inch diam thin-wall TV masting will slide inside
it. This stuff is not allow and will bend fairly easily being plain
aluminium, but it is easily "bent straight" again, using the scaffold pole.
Steel scaffold poles are cheaper but not worth the effort unless you get
them for free (I have two with a bend at the bottom, which was sawn off)  As
you say they are very heavy to errect for anyone who is not a fitness or
bodybuilding fanatic.

I am sure I dont need tell you but for others who may read this..... DONT
use scaffold joiners, they are not intended for this purpose. Instead use
"J-Beam" style sleeve couplers, they are sold by Barenco and, with generous
galvanising, last "forever". If you have a heavy lift, arrange the couplers
so that the pull is against the bolted flange, they can crumple at the
punched in "tube stop". I welded ribs over ours for field day pole aerials.
Barenco do a range of pivots and clamps in heavy galvanised steel, that can
be very usefull and ease the construction. I have no personal experience but
I have been told that whilst stainless steel hardware sounds a good idea,
stainless is much more brittle than mild steel and bolts for instance can
snap if they are over tightened, whereas mild steel bolts will stretch and
retain most of their strength. Useful stainless hardware, thimbles, eyes and
shackles, pulleys etc, can be obtained , in this area at least, from a
marina chandlery. Surprisingly these are very little more expensive than the
poor quality, made in China hardware that is available in the DIY stores.

I hope that helps a bit
Cheers de Alan G3NYK

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Dennison" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: 28 June 2005 15:39
Subject: LF: Buying poles in UK

My antenna is supported by two masts, approx 50ft high.

One mast is two 25ft sections of aluminium. The lower 25ft is a thick-
walled pole. Raising and lowering is easy.

The other mast has a 20ft steel scaffold pole topped by several 5ft
sections of thin-walled and deliberately flexible pole. The weight of
the steel pole makes raising and lowering this mast a 2/3 person job.

I have searched the web for scaffolding and have found alumimium
poles for building work, but I get the impression that an enquiry for
just one or two poles will be laughed at. In any case, delivery costs
could be high.

I would prefer to replace the steel pole with one section (or perhaps
two) as it is supported by wall brackets, not guys, and there is a
large unsupported section above it. The attached image shows the
arrangement - the one I want to replace is the lower half of the
house end.

How should I go about finding a suitable pole at a reasonable price,
and getting it delivered?

Mike, G3XDV
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