It has been years since I bought an antenna mast. Living in HOA's or apartments for the last 40 years doesn't allow me such luxuries like external antennas much. Recently however I have installed one using a satellite dish mount off the side of my home. This has a 1 11/16 inch inside diameter pole receptacle. Most scanner antennas, like the ST-2 and Omni-X that I have used are built for a common TV antenna mast of 1 1/4 inches outside diameter.
I went into town the other day looking for a standard TV antenna mast, Ace, HomeDepot, Lowes and BestBuy all did not have them, nor do they have them on their websites. The sales guys looked at me like I was from Mars when I asked about it.
My plan was to use a short chunk of the 1 5/8 inch plastic pipe that I have been using as a stop-gap as a bushing, the 1 1/14 inch TV mast would fit nicely inside and then I could drill thru both for the two stainless steel bolts to secure this to the mount's pipe. Since no one had TV masts anymore I bought a piece of grey plastic pipe, again as a stop gap. It works but it is too flexible for my liking.
I investigated using plumbing pipe but that was too heavy at 5 feet, much less 10. It did fit inside that plastic pipe bushing I cut though. They had some other metal pipes but nothing that was the right diameter that was weather resistant.
So I went to Amazon, they have exactly one item for the mast, at $25 plus another $24 each for shipping. I wanted two, but $100 is too much for a couple pieces of galvanized pipe.
Eventually I remembered the good service I got from Channel Master when I ordered a couple 300 to 75-ohm baluns for my ST-2. I checked their website and was able to quickly find the masts I wanted at $19 each, with $17 shipping all together. I could have driven to their outlet in Chandler but that would be a 2-hour drive each way. I can wait a few days and pay the $17, it would cost me that much in gas anyway. For $55 I will have them in a few days, it will be a week or so before there is a sub-100-degree day anyway so I can live with the plastic as long as there aren't any windstorms before then.
If you need some classic TV antenna parts and accessories check out the Channel Master website, remember a lot of that stuff can be used for scanners.
I went into town the other day looking for a standard TV antenna mast, Ace, HomeDepot, Lowes and BestBuy all did not have them, nor do they have them on their websites. The sales guys looked at me like I was from Mars when I asked about it.
My plan was to use a short chunk of the 1 5/8 inch plastic pipe that I have been using as a stop-gap as a bushing, the 1 1/14 inch TV mast would fit nicely inside and then I could drill thru both for the two stainless steel bolts to secure this to the mount's pipe. Since no one had TV masts anymore I bought a piece of grey plastic pipe, again as a stop gap. It works but it is too flexible for my liking.
I investigated using plumbing pipe but that was too heavy at 5 feet, much less 10. It did fit inside that plastic pipe bushing I cut though. They had some other metal pipes but nothing that was the right diameter that was weather resistant.
So I went to Amazon, they have exactly one item for the mast, at $25 plus another $24 each for shipping. I wanted two, but $100 is too much for a couple pieces of galvanized pipe.
Eventually I remembered the good service I got from Channel Master when I ordered a couple 300 to 75-ohm baluns for my ST-2. I checked their website and was able to quickly find the masts I wanted at $19 each, with $17 shipping all together. I could have driven to their outlet in Chandler but that would be a 2-hour drive each way. I can wait a few days and pay the $17, it would cost me that much in gas anyway. For $55 I will have them in a few days, it will be a week or so before there is a sub-100-degree day anyway so I can live with the plastic as long as there aren't any windstorms before then.
If you need some classic TV antenna parts and accessories check out the Channel Master website, remember a lot of that stuff can be used for scanners.
