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Re: Topband: tennis ball launcher for antennas

To: Wayne Kline <w3ea@hotmail.com>, "topband@contesting.com" <topband@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: Topband: tennis ball launcher for antennas
From: Charles Moizeau <w2sh@msn.com>
Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2018 03:24:48 +0000
List-post: <mailto:topband@contesting.com>
Wayne,

Ditch the idea of using the tennis ball launcher.  Neither it nor the Zebco 
spinning reel will solve your problem which is basically to get your projectile 
to reach the target but not go much further beyond it, either into a danger 
zone or into some other tree.

Here's my technique.  Get yourself a plastic tarp (Harbor Freight has lots of 
these).  I wanted some extra thickness and weight so I got a silver one that is 
10' x 20'.  Folded  down twice it makes a 5' x 10' surface.  I lay it on the 
ground with the 10' length pointing toward the target.

Estimating the distance to the target, I lay out about 15 percent more of the 
light weight line in an S shape back and forth on the tarp.  In my case I have 
about 300 yards of light weight line stored on a 9" plastic reel used by kite 
flyers.  This has enough weight so that when the weighted arrow has been shot 
and all the line on the tarp is used the reel jumps about 2' up in the air and 
brakes the the arrow before it can get into unwanted stuff.

I then lower the arrow to the ground, detach it and pull a heavier rope back to 
where I'm standing.

The tarp provides a friction-free surface for the light weight line.  The arrow 
won't seriously overshoot because there's a limited amount of line on the tarp 
before the gentle braking of the plastic reel.

There are some other tricks, but this should get you started in the right 
direction.

Charles, W2SH



From: Topband <topband-bounces@contesting.com> on behalf of Wayne Kline 
<w3ea@hotmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2018 6:34 PM
To: terry burge; topband@contesting.com
Subject: Re: Topband: tennis ball launcher for antennas

Terry.

I never used one of those pneumatic air launchers….. following your link  looks 
 like a great option.



In the past I have used a bow and arrow wit the bow having a Zebco spin cat 
real  attached. But was limited because  I have a 1000 ft road frontage tree 
line and arrows  descending can be a problem.



I  ran across a wrist rocket which uses a tennis ball … I  got a few hand balls 
 seemed to work better falling through the tree branches and have been using  
it in that configuration for a while.



My trees are not in the 100ft range but more in the 50/60 ft



YMMV



Wayne W3EA



Sent from Mail<https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for Windows 10



________________________________
From: Topband <topband-bounces@contesting.com> on behalf of terry burge 
<ki7m@comcast.net>
Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2018 6:04:10 PM
To: topband@contesting.com; terry burge
Subject: Topband: tennis ball launcher for antennas

Sometime back I bought one of those cheaper launchers that shot a 1-1.5 oz. 
fishing weight with fishing line attached. It was scary because if that fishing 
weight hit something other that the ground or the fish line broke you never 
knew where that thing was going to land.


I now have a CSV19 Pneumatic Antenna Launching System like you can see at 
www.antennalaunchers.com/csv19/index.html<http://www.antennalaunchers.com/csv19/index.html<http://www.antennalaunchers.com/csv19/index.html<http://www.antennalaunchers.com/csv19/index.html>>.
 I have used it with a lot of success and have seen it send a tennis ball over 
a 105' fir tree about half again as high. I think with the max 80# of pressure 
(think that is what the max is labeled)  can get a woven fish line over a tree 
at least 160' tall. 100+ feet for sure. The big thing is to have a lot of fish 
line on the fishing real and don't forget to open the bail. If you start 
breaking lines and try splicing them together that can be a problem catching on 
the reel spool. The new woven fish lines are even smaller and I think lighter 
than monofilament. Can't remember how many times I've had to search for the 
tennis ball because the 30-40# fishing line broke. Even have one on my third 
guy line up on my tower.


Wind can sometimes be a problem of course. Was really a problem with the first 
launcher using that in Keizer (in town). Hitting right above the top of a tall 
fir tree as a target you would be surprised just how far off one can go.


Terry

KI7M

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