Topband: tennis ball launcher for antennas

[terry burge]

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. 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