I was at Aldi this evening and spied a pile of "Extendable Painting Poles" discounted from about 20 bucks each to around $16 apiece. What caught my eye was the fibreglass bottom section, which is about 1180mm long and 32mm OD with about 2.1mm wall thickness, making it aaaalmost long enough to use a pair as a cross boom on a small to medium 2m or 70cm array of 2 horizontally polarised yagis with a suitable length aluminium centre piece through the elevation rotator. My other thought is that I could use these on a smallish x-pol array for EME work.
- Pole.jpg (11.14 KiB) Viewed 6032 times
Removal of the unwanted bits is achieved by undoing 2 screws, then all the fittings just lift off.
- Pole Top.jpg (11.4 KiB) Viewed 6032 times
The OD of the poles is just right for a clamp from an old Diamond vertical antenna to clamp nice and snugly on. I expect it won't take a whole lot of rotational torque to twist it, but for a small, very lightweight antenna on the end, this could work well for a quick and simple 2m portable array.
Anyways, I thought I'd post this as a heads up for anybody else that might be looking for a cheap source of (apparently) reasonable quality fibreglass poles. I've been hunting for some recently and have been quoted some hideously expensive prices, so thought this was worth splashing just over $30 on as an experiment.
