Amateur Radio Station K6JEB

from beyond the horizon

My Portable Crank-Up Mast

Posted by Jack on July 15th, 2008

Today I received my surplus portable crank-up telescoping antenna mast. Actually it was originally designed to be a lighting mast for use by the Signal Corps. I was able to put it on a dolly myself, roll it out to the back yard, and set it up all by myself. The mast stands just fine by itself using just the braces at the base. But if I were to put a tri-bander or even a vertical up on the top I would probably use guy lines to ensure it stays put. It measured 19.5 feet from the bottom of the base to the tip top. It took me less than thirty minutes to take it off the dolly, deploy it, crank it up and down twice and then take it down and put into storage; by myself!

Here’s what it looks like (click on the image to see a full-sized image):

20080715_antenna_mast_1