Just in case anyone is also struggling with this problem I thought I
would share how I worked it out. I have two AB-952 antenna masts.
These are the thirty five foot masts that were used with a multiplexed
tube radio system that provided the wonderful capacity of twenty two
voice channels between major element headquarters of the Army in
Korea. I have obtained an extension kit that extend the height to
fifty foot. I was trying to assemble a second extension kit from
parts because I couldn't find another complete extension kit.

Now to the problem. It is difficult to adapt antennas to the four
inch tubes that make up the mast assembly. It is hard to find boom
clamps that large. I found a source for the adapters that were used
to support a different antenna than the one for which the mast was
originally designed. Instead of the offset adapter that was used to
support the corner reflector antenna this masts was originally
designed for, I found the adapter for the dish antenna that was added
to the system later. The dish adapter comes straight up out of the top
of the mast and reduces in size to 2&1/4 inches outside diameter to
accommodate the clamps that were on the dish reflector. That is well
within the range of most of the boom to mast clamps that Hams use. I
had seen these adapters only in manuals but I was picking up an
extension kit, that Ben at Ontario Surplus helped me locate, from
another surplus dealer and recognized the adapters that he had in
stock. The dealers name is Tim Clark. He's in Lyndon, MD. He can
be reached via [glengar comat verizon period net]. For those who do
not recognize the term comat it is the "commercial and" that we all
call at. If your into military stuff he has quite a lot of other GI
stuff as well. My only relationship with Tim is that he has now
supplied me with the parts to complete my AB-952 Mast assemblies at a
very manageable cost after I was on the verge of giving up on ever
completing them.

It took five years of patient searching but now both masts are
complete. They allow me to hoist any of the smaller beams to fifty
feet off the ground and to use the newly found adapters to attach a
rotor or to directly attach a boom clamp and aim by turning the mast
assembly from the ground using the strap wrench which is part of the
basic mast accessory kit. These masts are really quite useful for any
kind of field deployment such as field day, Boy Scout Jamboree on the
air, public service events, and the list goes on.

I just thought that someone else might be working with these mast
assemblies and could use help finding a good source of parts.

73
--
Tom Horne, W3TDH