An ice storm a few years ago took down all my HF antennas. Only had one, so it wasn't a huge catastrophe, just a little one for me. Also got a tree or two that I hung antennas from, that was a biggy!
I'm naturally lazy, ain't gonna work any more than I have to, so finally got an 'antenna launcher', compressed air, no explosions. Got a line up over a tall tree, already had one over a shorter tree, so pulled a dipole up. Wasn't totally happy with how high I got it by hand so tied it to the car and pulled it up the rest of the way. Uh, hu, tried for that extra 3 feet, you know? Broke the rope over the tree, got to do it all again (@#$% it!). Still not the antenna I wanted but it was close. With a miraculous tuner I could 'stretch' the thing to -work- on a lot of bands, not just one. 'Good'? Of course not, but it 'works'.
So where do them 'words of wisdom' come in? Don't get too ambitious! An extra 6 inches of height from pulling the @#$ thing another 3 feet ain't gonna make no difference at all in most cases. Why did I waste you time to read this? Beats me, maybe so you don't make the same stupid mistakes??
- 'Doc
Oh, about that antenna launcher and explosions. I don't mind loud noises at all, but my neighbors do...
I'm naturally lazy, ain't gonna work any more than I have to, so finally got an 'antenna launcher', compressed air, no explosions. Got a line up over a tall tree, already had one over a shorter tree, so pulled a dipole up. Wasn't totally happy with how high I got it by hand so tied it to the car and pulled it up the rest of the way. Uh, hu, tried for that extra 3 feet, you know? Broke the rope over the tree, got to do it all again (@#$% it!). Still not the antenna I wanted but it was close. With a miraculous tuner I could 'stretch' the thing to -work- on a lot of bands, not just one. 'Good'? Of course not, but it 'works'.
So where do them 'words of wisdom' come in? Don't get too ambitious! An extra 6 inches of height from pulling the @#$ thing another 3 feet ain't gonna make no difference at all in most cases. Why did I waste you time to read this? Beats me, maybe so you don't make the same stupid mistakes??
- 'Doc
Oh, about that antenna launcher and explosions. I don't mind loud noises at all, but my neighbors do...