When someone says the word “mast,” sailboats and flagpoles come to mind. As masts, they’re upright columns that users affix things to—sails and flags. Telescopic masts are another kind of mast with many uses.
“Telescopic” refers to how the masts expand and collapse, often termed “telescoping.” When you see one, you’ll see that their structure is what these masts share with telescopes used for astronomy.
Unlike those telescopes, they have an infinite number of uses, and looking through one tends to involve an attached camera. If you’re new to the devices, this may be a lot to take in—but is far from all you need to know about telescopic masts. Take a look at some key facts about these valuable tools.
The Lowdown On Telescopic Masts
There’s no end to the variety of lengths, widths, and diameters of telescoping masts. Some need a manual extension, but many are pneumatic masts. That means they use pressurized gas to expand and contract.
Some telescoping masts are small enough to hold while using, but most mount them on trucks or permanent stands. Manufacturers make them from several materials, including PVC, aluminum, and steel.
Sturdier, heavier masts are ideal for long-term outdoor uses where they might face rough conditions. Lighter masts are easy to carry around and transfer from platform to platform.
Read on to learn more about the many different industries that use these versatile tools.
Pneumatic Masts Bring the News to You
When news crews hit the streets to update the public on the latest goings-on, they need a reliable way to send signals to their stations.
If you’ve ever seen on site news trucks or vans, you’ve noticed long poles sticking up in the air. When they hit the road, they collapse: They’re a kind of telescoping mast!
The masts themselves aren’t antennas, but they house them. To guarantee a strong signal, crews need sturdy masts that work in all kinds of weather.
Broadcasters call permanent, massive TV antennas “towers” and they indeed tower over cities and towns.
Portable masts on trucks and vans look nothing like full-size television towers. Nobody would ever dream of uprooting a television tower, and portable masts pale in size. Yet, as they serve the same purpose, industry professionals often call these masts “telescoping towers.”
Live Radio Broadcasts Use Portable Masts
TV stations aren’t the only media outlets that do live, on-location broadcasts. As anyone with a TV has seen live news, so anyone who listens to their car radio has heard live radio broadcasts of sports games, media events, or news segments from the street.
Like TV channels, radio stations use telescoping masts mounted on vehicles as portable towers.
Ham Radio Follows the Pros
Anyone can broadcast over radio waves if they have the right equipment.
Ham radio is the common term for amateur broadcasting and over-the-air communication. Operators don’t need giant, permanent radio towers like the ones professional stations use. That’s good news since few if any radio hobbyists have the room or money to set up one of those impressive fixtures.
Telescoping masts are a godsend for ham radio operators that want to take their hobby to the next level. Like live radio and TV operators, hobbyists fix antennas to the structures.
Tall, sturdy, yet lightweight collapsable masts help them reach new audiences and talk to people farther away. Telescopic masts of all sizes and prices, so many hobbyists can afford them.
Rescued From the Great Outdoors? Thank Telescoping Masts
Police, park rangers, and other professionals use strong walkie-talkies while patrolling the streets, forests, and so on. Some of these devices cover impressive ranges, but when officials launch search-and-rescue missions, patrolling on foot isn’t always enough.
Rescuers often use other tools, like photography, video, and thermal imaging from drones. These modern techniques make today’s rescue missions more successful than those that came before, but even they fall through at times. When the weather’s bad, drones won’t do the trick.
Nothing fixes drones in place, which is usually good. When blizzards move in, for example, that advantage turns into a major flaw.
Wind pushes them off-course and pouring rain knocks them around. Bad conditions make filming or using thermal imaging from above near impossible.
In these situations, sturdiness is how telescopic masts assist search and rescue efforts. Heavy winds won’t blow them away and they’re ideal when rescuers home on their target. Rangers and police crews fix cameras and lights on top and extend them from trucks for the best views.
Telescopic Masts Aid Security Forces and Top-Secret Operations
Search-and-rescue police crews use telescoping masts all the time, but they’re far from the only ones in their profession who do. Police and non-police security forces use telescopic masts at festivals, parades, and beyond.
Cameras on masts give security excellent vantage points. They don’t need obvious security towers or guards in multiple places.
Another advantage of using telescopic masts for security and surveillance is how hard they are to spot. A big, extendable pole might not seem hard to spot, but they’re like trees in a forest. Media vans with poles on them, lampposts, telephone poles, and more all detract from masts with cameras on top.
If anything proves how hard it is to spot a telescopic mast, it’s their use in secret operations. Spotting mobile surveillance vans in public isn’t easy: They often have masts with antennas or satellite dishes on them but because people are used to news vans and the like, they don’t think twice about these secret police vehicles.
Telescoping Masts in Film and Photography
Along with photo and video surveillance, filmmakers and photographers with more artistic pursuits use telescoping masts in their trades. Mounting cameras to masts on trucks keep them steady during fast-moving shots. On the opposite end of the spectrum, their ability to stay in one place helps wildlife photographers get shots without frightening critters.
Influencers and others looking for more impressive Instagram selfies can use lightweight telescopic masts as selfie sticks. Telescopic masts are rigid, and sturdy, and come in sizes longer than commercial selfie sticks. This makes them great for taking group shots and selfies from a distance.
Learn Vital Facts and Succeed in Business
These facts about telescopic masts are real eye-openers: From now on, you’ll always point them out on TV and around town. You can also use this knowledge to improve your business and hobbies.
If you want to learn more to wow others and better your career, click on another article to broaden your horizons and skillset.
