From owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Mon Nov 3 13:06:13 1997 Received: from fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU (fidoii.CC.lehigh.EDU [128.180.1.4]) by oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id NAA04551 for ; Mon, 3 Nov 1997 13:06:12 -0500 (EST) Received: from Lehigh.EDU ([127.0.0.1]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with SMTP id <34879-42728>; Mon, 3 Nov 1997 12:53:42 -0500 Received: from nss4.cc.Lehigh.EDU ([128.180.1.13]) by fidoii.cc.Lehigh.EDU with ESMTP id <34900-42728>; Mon, 3 Nov 1997 12:41:41 -0500 Received: from mail.atl.bellsouth.net (mail.atl.bellsouth.net [205.152.0.21]) by nss4.cc.Lehigh.EDU (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id MAA56564 for ; Mon, 3 Nov 1997 12:41:32 -0500 Received: from n4xy (host-207-53-6-15.atl.bellsouth.net [207.53.6.15]) by mail.atl.bellsouth.net (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id MAA29906; Mon, 3 Nov 1997 12:40:56 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <3.0.1.32.19971103123953.00af1640@mail.atl.bellsouth.net> Date: Mon, 03 Nov 1997 12:39:53 -0500 Reply-To: n4xy@bellsouth.net Sender: owner-qrp-l@Lehigh.EDU Precedence: bulk From: Ed Tanton To: "Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion" Subject: Re: How do you get antenna in the air?... LONG (but good!) In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-To: plquick@facstaff.wisc.edu X-Cc: "Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion" X-Sender: n4xy@mail.atl.bellsouth.net X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0.1 (32) X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN Status: RO Hi Paulette... NO WAY was it an "upper body strength" problem... I imagine you either used too light a sinker, too heavy a line, or no fishing reel. Perhaps all of the above. You must use the heaviest sinker they make (that I know about.) It is slightly smaller than your average cherry. Buy a small can of florescent orange paint and paint several/all of the weights (you ought to buy at least 6-you're gonna lose some no matter what.) You need an inexpensive casting reel. Not necessarily a rod. Buy just about the lightest casting line you can find-on a strength-to-size basis. That is to say, the smallest diameter, more or less, with the highest strength for that size. Fishing types get into this sort of macho thing about landing a heavy fish with light line-that is not the point here... the physical size of the line will limit how far the slingshot weight can pull it. You're going to pull a nylon line through the trees with this line, not lift an antenna, so strength is a secondary consideration. Go to Radio Shack-or wherever-and get a 3 or (better) 4 foot cheap ground rod. Attach the reel to the top of the rod-you can simply use black tape and tape the two mounting feet to the rod with the line exit hole facing what will be 'up' away from the gnd rod. Now, when you are ready to launch, you find a likely spot, stab the ground rod into the ground at an angle so the line end faces you intended target tree, and let fly. There are two schools of thought about where to put a line in a tree, with one being to literally shoot over the highest point central to the body of the tree, and ultimately allow the weight of the antenna pull it down until it stops. It'll work. Where I live near Atlanta, we have enough whip in the trees that it'd stay up 'til the first thunderstorm. (And yes, I have tried springs, suspended weights, etc. all to no avail. When #10 copperweld was snapped during a storm I chose to lower my antenna heights nearer to the trunk of the tree where it doesn't sway.) Avoid limb junctions with sharp vees. It will tend to trap the knots/wire/etc. So, I belong to the other school of thought that picks out a nice thick limb near the trunk and tries for placement there. You can do it in two or three tries once you get better at it. This'll get you to 50-60 feet easily, and will have some decent longevity. When you take your shot, reel out some line beside you-JUST DON'T GET IT TANGLED!!! Be certain that as the weight pulls on it, it is pulling from the top of your pile of line, and not the bottom. This will require that after you reel off-say... 20-50 feet, you redistribute it to another spot... since it will reel off with the (weight) end at the bottom. You cannot really expect to let the reel do all the unreeling during flight-you just don't have that much pull on the line, and reeling off some gives it a good start. OK... once it is over a limb, one pitfall to beware of it to pull it rapidly enough to cause it to wrap around the limb. Once that happens, pull it enough to break it, and get a new weight-that old one it there for the duration. Now, you took your shot, you saw it sail over the limb, where is it??? THAT's the reason for the day-glow-orange. Even then you may have to bounce it a little to find the moving ball. It may even-if you've been VERY VERY good all year-actually make it to the ground on the other side. Don't laugh, it happened to me ONCE... spent 20 minutes jiggling it up and down trying to find the darn thing, and it had made it all the way down. Only way I found it was to go to the other side in hopes of being able to see it from a different angle, and there it was!!! Made my day!!! Now, you have it over the limb, you've located it 35 feet up, and it freely moves up and down. Start lowering it to the ground. Often there is just enough friction between tree and line that you'll have to jiggle and bounce it down. Any time it's really near a limb, again: beware of causing it to twirl around that limb when you tug. You tug, and you bounce, and finally it gets down. You can see it hanging there 4 feet off the ground. Great!! Take your roll of slick plastic electrical tape and fasten a line of small diameter nylon or dacron cord (thicker than string-but less than 1/8th in. stuff) to the fishing line. Cut off the weight. Tie each to each using the non-slip small knot(s) of you choice. The smaller the knot the better. I use a pait of square knots in each. Test it for slippage/etc. If solid, then as SMALL as possible, tapering toward the tree, wrap the connection with the tape. This will aide it in slipping through the branches and even forks. Again reel out as much as you need of the cord to reach the other side, then repile it again so the taped end is feeding from atop the pile. Go to the other side, and carefully pull your fishing line through. When the cord reaches you you're practically assured you have 1/2 of an installation. With the nylon cord, and (I use stranded guy wire... clothesline is ok... but I have found the plastic-covered kind to rarely be strong enough, and stranded guy wire is cheap enough [galvanized!]) attach the cord to the wire. Form a loop end with the wire, using a minimum of 5-6 inches tightly looped around the wire after the 1/2 to 1" diameter loop. Tie the cord through that loop, and turn the wire circle into a long narrow loop to lower its profile as it passes through the tree. Wrap all of that with your plastic tape, again making it taper so that the tree end is the smallest. (The tape really helps the lines slip through the trees.) Now, pull it back through once more, until your wire reaches the working height. Let me add here that if you use a 6 foot step ladder, you can raise "working height" out of reach of playful children and not-so-playful vandals. I like to put a 1/4" or larger plated eyebolt into the tree here and attach to that. It really minimizes the "profile". Don't get elaborate attaching the wire yet... you still have to put up the other side, attach the antenna and pull one or both sides enough to raise the antenna while keeping it more-or-less centered between the two trees. There is one final point: simply placing the antenna between the two trees leaves it subject to being drawn and quartered, so to speak. My trees have a nasty habit of swaying in the wind, and sooner or later, they sway in opposite directions, resulting in a 2 piece antenna with the broken ends on the ground. There are all sorts of methods to try and avoid this. 1. You can use springs: a) use a spring strong enough to hold you up! b) know that they ARE going to rust c) and watch out that the wire doesn't manage to slip out of the 3/4 loop found on the usual spring end. 2. You can use pulleys: a) Inevitably the rope WILL come out of the pulley channel b) Rope ain't wire. It rots, breaks, deteriorates, whatever. It ain't wire-and you can't use wire with pulleys (without getting expensive by using sailboat/aircraft stuff) and pulleys really do not have any 'give' they mainly help raising and lowering the antenna. They do help with the next thing you can do. 3. You can use a suspended weight (I've used bricks.) these allow the antenna to give when it needs more length, and the weight then tightens the antenna again when the sway returns to normal. Problem is that it's not fast enough for a thunderstorm snap. It did stay up the longest of any of these methods in the heights of my trees. 4. You can use more or less nothing, by keeping your antenna close to the main trunk of the tree, and low enough that sway is minimal. This can be well above 50 feet on a large tree. This has been my final choice at my QTH after repeated failures higher up using all of the other methods. I have had a G5RV 40-45' up for 5 years of summer thunderstorms and such. I was replacing the antenna(s) at least twice a year at 50-60feet. You have to see #10 copperweld snapped in two to become a believer in the stresses involved. Always, always, always use coax seal everywhere there's a coax connector or connection. You coax is a like a sponge... it'll soak up water from one end to the other... and then rot into uselessness. Cover your connectors with it. If you must recover your PL-259s, first cover them with a layer of that same old 3M plastic electrical tape... then cover that with coax seal. Personally, I then cover that with another layer of tape-to help against abrasion. Finally, if you have a lot of squirrels. pellets and shotgun shells are a lot cheaper than new coax. Enough said on that. Good luck... it may have sounded like a lot, but you can put up a new antenna in a morning, if you prepare things right. Putting the "rock over the limb" can be the easiest part. Do it right, and it'll last for years. 72/73 ZUT!!! __________________________________________________________ Ed Tanton N4XY EMAIL: n4xy@bellsouth.net 189 Pioneer Trail Marietta, GA 30068-3466 TEL: (770)579-3933 V/MBX/FAX __________________________________________________________