[CQ-Contest] Drones and antennas

[Michael Walker]

Hi Wigi

I feel your pain on that one.  :)

What I do now is use 15# kevlar fishing line with a weight that is about the same as 2 AA NICAD batteries.   It seems to slide very well through the tree.  But, the key thing is height.  You almost have to be at least 1/2 the height of the tree above the tree before you release it so you gain some inertia to fall though everything.  

Once you have this line over the tree, you then pull back some polypropylene binder twine and then use that to pull your actual permanent line back.  It is a bit of a dance, but it seems to work well enough.

73, Mike va3mw

Sent from my iPad

> On May 22, 2023, at 9:33 PM, wigi at kl0r.com wrote:
> 
> I have used drones to inspect antennas. The utility is somewhat limited,
> even though you get high quality images from the drone. My experience is
> that most of the things you're looking to see when using a drone are
> probably too small or too subtle to easily see in a drone image... and
> something more substantial would probably be visible from the ground.
> 
> At KL7RA, it is typically a very windy site, so on many days it is too windy
> to fly and station-keep around the antenna elements. In a less challenging
> environment it might be more useful than I have found it to be... but also,
> when I've had problems that might be easily observed from a drone, the
> conditions were not suitable for flight... for example, too cold (below
> freezing) or too windy.
> 
> I have attempted to use the drone to string antennas over trees. The
> challenge I have with it is that you have to carry a weight on the line and
> it needs to be suspended below the drone by several feet in order to keep
> the line out of the propellers. The weight also needs to be heavy enough to
> pull the line through the tree once it is disconnected from the drone. All
> of this is to say that I have not successfully done this... My drone was
> unable to lift the weight I was using. I was about to try this past
> weekend... but I need to update firmware before I can fly.
> 
> 73,
> 
> Wigi, KL0R
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: CQ-Contest <cq-contest-bounces+wigi=kl0r.com at contesting.com> On Behalf
> Of Charles H. Harpole
> Sent: Sunday, May 21, 2023 6:24 AM
> To: CQ-Contest Reflector <CQ-Contest at contesting.com>
> Subject: [CQ-Contest] Drones and antennas
> 
> I'm interested in looking uh hams that have flown their drone near their
> antenna and I can see what footage they took.
> I would like to see videos of what hams have taken with a drone of their
> antennas
> 
> how much analysis of connections and taping can I do if I use a drone on my
> antennas
> 
> thank you and provide the link to me please...........
> H0ZCW@ gmail.com
> 73    Charly
> 
> --
> Charly, HS0ZCW
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