Topband: tennis ball launcher for antennas

[Wayne Kline]

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



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________________________________
From: Topband <topband-bounces at contesting.com> on behalf of terry burge <ki7m at comcast.net>
Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2018 6:04:10 PM
To: topband at 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>. 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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