Kite lifted antennas

[W5OTR]

While in the eastern Montana Oilfield, there was tons of wind and very few trees. While on an outing I saw a guy using a kite to take photos of an area. This got me to wonder about lifting a wire for an antenna. My work load was very heavy and I really didn't have enough time to perfect this, I did however operate one time on 80 meters with a 66 foot wire lifted by a delta kite. I had about 20 minutes of success until the wind got too strong and I had to quit. The results and reports were better than i had expected. Night and day compared to my mobile antenna. I used a frac tank for a counterpoise/anchor. My swr was a flat 2:1 from 3.5-3.6 mhz. There are several good kites available and I have wondered about lifting a 160 meter EFHW.

Anyone have any experience with this? You can find a few YouTube videos and articles about this being done on a few different applications.

Chris W5OTR

[KnoxvilleMike]

I used a frac tank for a counterpoise/anchor.

I like it! One of the better phrases I learned when I moved to the South was, "Run what ya brung!", i.e. use what's at hand.

While I've never used a kite for radio, I've thought about it many times over the years, along with surplus weather balloons, particularly for calm winter nights on 160m.

Did you use a bleeder resistor for static? I'm from the Black Hills (western South Dakota) and am quite familiar with the winds and static out there.

73,
Mike

[W5OTR]

I did use a resistor-- the rig was a ft-897. Even with a bleeder I still had to discharge the antenna to ground every 5 minutes due to build up faster than the bleeder would allow.

[Andrew (grayhat)]

If the UnUn is DC shorted, like this one

http://www.jumaradio.com/The-challengin ... ansformer/

and if the ground goes to a decent ground stake, there shouldn't be need for a bleeder since the antenna would effectively be connected to ground at DC; alternatively one may try a galvanic transformer

https://www.electrical4u.com/images/201 ... 767678.png

primary to coax, secondary to antenna and ground (or counterpoise system)

[w0rw]

Balloons work too...
see https://www.eham.net/article/49051
Paul w0rw

[NJ6FNJ6F]

Hey Chris
I'm a believer and have done it for a long time.
On windy days, fly your EFHW/ RW hanging down from a very stable light weight 1 lb 8 foot wing span delta kite. This kite will easily take your wire straight up to the 150 foot level from your impedance xformer. Mine hauled RG174 coax up to 200 feet easily in less than a minute and simply have a kite string winder at a 45 angle with a spike. Delta kites are very stable and with a 6+ knot wind will stay up as high as you let it go relative to weight. I have done this in San Diego off Mission Bay with a hanging 20 meter vertical dipole with streamers to keep bottom half of dipole away from the 600 watt rated coax with no problem & small ferrite snap on magnetic core at 200 feet. Probably not that many park restrictions since it is an innocent (toy kite) and not a hang glider or quad copter. If asked you can just say the wire going straight up is an additional safety precaution because you are the careful conscientious type that values the rules! You could have that wire up all day and work all the bands. I did it with a dipole. The End Fed antennas are an even easier situation. I worked Milano Italy with a S8 & 100 watts from my car on 20 at 2PM. The additional altitude is like adding an amp when working 10 watts SSB with no cheating… & being aeronautical stationary will really make you stand out and become a novelty in the pile-up. Maybe we can make Kite SOTA or Kite POTA a new addition to an award hi… I flew it during Halloween with a lit white pumpkin one time. Pic on my QRZ site of kite.
Rich / NJ6F

[Andrew (grayhat)]

https://www.aa5tb.com/efha.html

I think one of those, cut for the 80 or 160 meters band may fit pretty well the kite setup