Poles in the Air

The other day, I wrote about my difficulties in obtaining utility poles.  Well, as usual,  that problem was easy to solve with money!

Gary, the local utility contractor, bought four poles for me from a mill in Arkansas.  They were delivered early last week by a hauler out of Little Rock.  He had a load of poles going to Oilton and put on my four as well.  The driver used some sort of articulated crane to unload the poles in just a matter of minutes!

I needed to get the poles ready for use by mounting a swivel and pulley at the top of each one and running a dacron line to the ground.  I told Gary I would give him a call when I was ready to stand them up.  At this point I should mention that, although the poles were supposed to be 50 feet long, they didn't look very long laying there.  I got a tape measure out and checked them and they were right on.

By Thursday, I had obtained all the "stuff" I needed to rig the poles and it only took a couple of hours to finish them up.  I called Gary and he told me he would be out the next day (yesterday) to set them.  So, about 10 a.m. yesterday, he showed up with the digger derrick and proceeded to stand them up.  As with any job, having the right tools makes it so much easier!  In less than three hours he had the poles all installed.

It is absolutely amazing how tall those poles became after they were set!  The same ones that I thought were too short are now giants.  Today, I'm going to get the loop antenna up on these new poles and see how it works.  I'll let you know when I find out.