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Pipe vs "antenna mast"

Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2007 7:03 pm
by KitN1MCC
i am moveing my base station to a new location at a house my friends house/barn/shop cause it is up on a nice hill

it is an older barn and i dont want to drill thru the roof i am goning to side mount it with a set of heavy duty wall mouts from tesso i am putting up a Super station master from RFS i have i am thinking about useing good rigid hot dip galvanised (sp) pipe is there a difference with that and so called mast i know the pip is nice and thick walled but is mast any thing specail

Re: Pipe vs "antenna mast"

Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 3:44 am
by Jim202
The mast is probably of thinner wall construction. i would go with the heavy pipe. Schedual 80 is about the
minimum I would use for supporting the Super Station Master.

Don't forget to ground the pipe well per the NEC (National Electrical Code) and standard telecommunications
standards. Most insurance companies are getting very testy these days for claims of lightning damage and
radio antennas involved. Some even have their own grounding standards.

Jim


KitN1MCC wrote:i am moveing my base station to a new location at a house my friends house/barn/shop cause it is up on a nice hill

it is an older barn and i dont want to drill thru the roof i am goning to side mount it with a set of heavy duty wall mouts from tesso i am putting up a Super station master from RFS i have i am thinking about useing good rigid hot dip galvanised (sp) pipe is there a difference with that and so called mast i know the pip is nice and thick walled but is mast any thing specail

Re: Pipe vs "antenna mast"

Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 6:10 am
by kf4sqb
Ditto Jim's opinion. I've used galvanized water pipe for antenna mast before, and never had a bit of problem. Just make sure, as Jim said, that you ground it very well. Find out what the local standard is, or the insurance company's standard, and go above and beyond. To quote myself, "there is no such thing as excessive grounding!"

Re: Pipe vs "antenna mast"

Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 2:27 pm
by psapengineer
We use 2" ID (2.375 id) plain end water pipe for this kind of application. Here's a comment, even without the mast pipe as a lever arm the Super Station-Master will produce an incredible amount of torque/thrust on it's mounting. I would guess that it would be in the hundreds to thousands of ft-lbs depending on the mast length at rated wind speed with ice.

Re: Pipe vs "antenna mast"

Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 2:40 pm
by KitN1MCC
the antenna is not going up that hight. just enough to get it base just above the ridge.

as for grounding i am know what to do i am gonna go the 2 rods 10 foot set up with some heavy clamps