Topband: balloon verticals

[William Preston]

Finally a subject that I have some experience with, that is balloon 
verticals.

I'd recommend connecting the lifted wire to an aluminum vertical to reduce 
the actual amount of wire in the air. I used my otherwise useless butternut 
hf-2v to good advantage as a balloon vertical base.

Hydrogen is a lot cheaper than helium and doesn't go away through the walls 
of the balloon as fast. Not that it would matter much in a weekend outing. 
There are also some products that can be sprayed into the balloon prior to 
inflation that will slow the migration of gas out through the walls of the 
balloon. Check with your local used car lot. I got a lot of good information 
from them as the Anchorage all have balloons flying 100-foot in the air.

No matter what, always use personal protective equipment when filling a 
balloon. That is eye and ear protection. I've only had one balloon come 
apart when I was filling it but once was enough.

I have been using 4' qualtex party balloons I bought from the Lippman 
Company in Portland, Oregon (503-239-7007) to lift my antenna. They cost 
about $8.00 each. This is less than the helium costs to fill them. These 
balloons are also a lot cheaper than the goverment surplus types I've seen 
advertised.

I've left the balloons up for as long as three days but quit after some high 
school students shot one down at 0700am. But there are probably more guns in 
Anchorage than most places. Instead I just leave my 20-pound fishing pole 
connected to the balloon (with lots of swivels) and reel it down in the 
morning before the gun equipped school kids head out to catch their bus.

Reeling the balloon down has also kept my English wife from waking me up and 
complaining about the 'Jolly Green Giant's condom' in a tree-top of her 
garden.

Personally if I were going to a salt lake or some other such place I'd put 
up a shortened vertical 4-square. Balloons are for idiots and Alaskans. For 
the record my subdivision does have underground power. And I know nothing 
about the wire suspended from a 4' balloon that blew across the Tudor Road 
substation and knocked out power to 25,000 homes. Honest.

73 from Anchorage.



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