I agree totally - your utilities pole is definitely not the best place to
mount an antenna. Potential for interference is greatly increased, and as
pointed out by others, the safety implications would be of major concern.
There is no real need to pour a slab for a mast - an easy way is a stake in
the ground (I use a variety of 8 foot stakes - half of each in the ground -
for a couple of my antenna masts) to secure the base, and some sort of
fastening to the side of the house. Some of the hardware as used in TV
antenna masts can be easily used in this fashion - a stand-off bracket to
clear the mast from the eaves can be very easy to put up, and very
effective. I have used this fashion to put up masts up to 12metres in
height that have been made up of 6.5 metre poles (about 2 inch OD)
telescoped together - and am yet to have any fall over (touch wood). You
could go higher than this, however you would probably want to make them more
rigid (thicker walls, and definitely want to guy them - it is not a bad idea
to guy this sort of mast anyway (unless your roof is 10 metres high).
One thing I would highly recommend is not to skimp on the coaxial cable - in
my opinion, the minimum you should be looking at for an external antenna is
RG213 cable, and if you have the money available, look at using lower loss
cable if you plan on listening to the UHF bands on a regular basis - the 213
will still work, but the better the cable, the lower the signal losses
(within reason of course).





Matt

wrote in message
...
Mounting your antenna on that particular pole will bring in all the
interference in the world to your radio. Every time your neighbor
turns on a flourescent light, a microwave oven, electric motor or
whatever you'll hear it as the noise travels well over power lines.
Many utility companies also prohibit mounting anything except utility
services to a pole they are using.
Also- I would consider mounting any antenna of any sort to a pole that
carries electrical power an invitation to disaster. If something
breaks, be it a bolt on the antenna mounting or even a loose part from
the antenna or if the coaxial cable to the antenna frays and touches
something else on the pole or touches a power line, you're going to
fry your radio, maybe start a fire, maybe fry yourself if you touch
the radio.


On Tue, 8 Jul 2003 01:47:00 +0000 (UTC), bolt thrower
wrote:

Hi folks.

I just picked up a wide-band scanner antenna from Radio Shack, and for
the
first time ever I have the ability to mount it outside and up high.
Immedietely available to me is the pole that sticks out of the roof that
all of our services come in on... electrical, phone, etc. This is the
most ideal place for me to install the antenna, however I am wondering
what sort of interference I will get from the electrical lines just
inches
away.

If that is not an option than I will either have to settle for a tree or
pour a slab and put up a "real" pole. Am wondering about the validity of
mounting the antenna to the utilities pole.

Thanks


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