Aerial photography - Ancient Gallery

The aerial is a Wolsey 18 element Group A. It is mounted on a 3ft right angle mast which in turn is clamped (by an Antiference No 1 clamp) to the top of a 5ft swan neck mast. The 5ft swan neck mast and the chimney bracket together comprised the ‘9K’ combination sold by Antiference with their ‘Antex plus five’ and ‘Antex plus seven’ BI/BIII arrays. This was a deceptively strong fixing, as it needed to be given the weight and windage of the ‘Antex plus’ arrays. The bracket design was very clever and could mould itself to the chimney slightly, ensuring a good fix that wouldn’t slip. The mast was not gripped by U bolts, which can cause deformation and weakness, but by broad clamps. The 1" diameter mast was extremely strong. I keep one of these for poking things that are out of reach (fruit and cats in trees mostly), and the tube wall thickness far exceeds that of a modern 1" mast. This explains why this apparently optimistic installation has remained intact for so many years.

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