The ST-2 comes in a heavy, spiral wound carboard tube wuth metal caps pressed into each end that are sometimes hard to get out.
I just grab the end of the tube where the spiral comes to a point and unwind it until you are past the cap. Since they choose a tube that is really close to the diameter of the coil pack, sometimes it is tough to get the antenna out even if you get the cap out, so I unwind it past the coil pack and it comes out cleanly.

The ST-2 is a great omni-directional antenna, but is affected by what is in between your tuner and the broadcast antenna. As far as the packaging, I just use needle nose pliers and pull the metal cap off, the trick is figuring out which end the cardboard tube has the coil. When you order a yagi style antenna from MagnumDynalab, you just end up getting a Weingard, which to be honest is the best thing to use if astetics /space is not an issue. Their are several remote control capable rotors on the market and make it easy to create macro jumps with a decent remote when you have direct preset tuning capability.

Man that was quick. I got my ST-2 today in the mail. Works amazing. It's just setting here in the living room plugged into the receiver, and is picking up all the stations I wanted. When I put it in the attic or on the roof, I'll probably have more stations than I want.

Thanks to all for suggestions,

Mark