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Re: [TowerTalk] Antennas in trees

To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Antennas in trees
From: Bob Moore <ki6iv@sbcglobal.net>
Date: Sun, 2 Aug 2015 10:46:14 -0700
List-post: <towertalk@contesting.com">mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
I have a home made air canon (potato gun) that I shoot a weighted tennis ball over trees, branches or whatever I aim at. I fill the tennis ball with water (of course wet the entire ball to help lube it). It easily clears any of the 100' trees I have used. (Once at Field Day we shot a weighted ball into the woods to see how far it would go, estimated about 200' up and 500' out). The ball very seldom gets hung up in the branches (I am dealing with Jeffry Pines), Most of the time I just use enough pressure to go over the trees and don't need to worry about the ball and line in branches. For my WARC fan dipole I shot over both trees (70' up) at once (lucky shot). We have used the cannon for putting up the Field Day antennas and helping out others to get lines high in trees. As for vertical wires adjacent to the trunks or in branches I have not noticed much affect unless everything is very wet and the wire is against a wet branch then the resonance is off some.

Good Luck,     Bob,  K6NV




On 8/2/2015 10:10 AM, Lew Sayre wrote:
Yo,
      I have 2  quarter wave 160M verticals each consisting of 12GA stranded
wire that are suspended over their respective 130' fir trees. Mother Nature
placed these two trees 3/8 wavelengths apart and oriented somewhat at
45/225 degrees. I use a COMTEK  2 vertical box to change the pattern or at
least it is a placebo effect when I turn the knob on the COMTEK control.
      I use a pneumatic antenna launcher to get the wires over the trees.
www.akbeng.com   I have no interest in the company but have had a lot of
fun using the device to get wires way up in the air over trees. The
vertical wire breaks about every 3 years or so, so I have gained some
expertise in shooting the weighted tennis ball over the top of the tree
allowing for windage, flora and fauna and snide comments. My XYL does not
understand the need  to shoot tennis balls over trees but refuses to climb
the trees for me.
      These two verticals seem to work.  I have 60 1/4 wavelength radials
under each vertical. Going from 56 to 60 radials is where the AA-230PRO
showed no further changes in impedance in the system so I stopped there.
The system seems to work better here on this rocky ridge top during the
rainy winter time.
     The wires do not come straight down next to the trunk of the firs. They
are held out away from the trunk by branches but are mostly near vertical.
Yes, I have anecdotal stories of working EU and rare stuff with this
lash-up but everybody has such stories. I do reasonably well during the
160M contests from the West Coast although nearby K7RAT/N6TR usually whips
me handily but then he is a better operator than I am.
    So to answer your question,   Yes!  Put up a wire over a tree, put
radials underneath the wire  and get on the air. You will be happy you did.
   73 and I remain,
    Lew    w7ew

On Sun, Aug 2, 2015 at 8:34 AM, Edward McCann via TowerTalk <
towertalk@contesting.com> wrote:

How about some comments on performance of vertical antennas over the limb
near the tree trunk?

Anyone?

AG6CX



Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 2, 2015, at 6:22 AM, <kb2m@arrl.net> <kb2m@arrl.net> wrote:

I used to use a slingshot to shoot a sinker on a piece of fishing line,
over the limb. But now I just cast the sinker over the limb of interest
with
a short fishing pole. The sinker will return to ground much better then
the
arrow. I guess what method you use depends on how accurate you can cast
:-)
73 Jeff kb2m

-----Original Message-----
From: TowerTalk [mailto:towertalk-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of
ve4xt@mymts.net
Sent: Saturday, August 01, 2015 19:03 PM
To: Towertalk Reflector
Subject: [TowerTalk] Antennas in trees

Anyone have any advice for getting the fishing line to come back to
ground
zero?

I have no problem getting the line over a nice, tall branch but the arrow
and tennis ball get caught up on the way back down. If I'm lucky, I can
snap
the line and retrieve the arrow, but that's only happened once.

I don't exactly have a bucket truck guy to call where I am (cottage). And
I'm running out of cheap arrows.

Kelly
ve4xt

Sent from my iPhone
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