Back in the 1970s when I lived on the South Coast, a local to me - G3RCE -
used to regularly
put up a Half Wave vertical on 160m suspended by a Hydrogen-filled Weather
balloon.
However, unlike a Kite which needs decent wind to stay aloft, with a Balloon
you want NO wind !
As suggested, he found it worked much better than a Quarter wave vertical,
not just due to earth losses, but I guess the radiating part was much
higher. He used aluminium wire, and running about 600 watts output. The
vertical was tethered about 5 feet off the ground, with a horizontal wire
about 50ft long running to the upstairs window of his shack, where he had a
parallel-tuned ATU with a link winding to the Tx.
Incidentally, although in recent years I have used Dipoles, at several QTHs
over the years I have used an end-fed half wave on 160m, with no issues -
this was normally where the shack was on the third floor, so I didn't have
to bring the feed-point down towards ground.
Roger G3YRO
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