Topband: tennis ball launcher for antennas

[Mike - W5JR]

+1 on the Ryobi hand held inflator. Much better than carrying a small air tank or heavy/bulky jump start kit. Makes easy and quick work of pressurizing the spud gun. 

tnx
Mike / W5JR
Alpharetta GA


> On Nov 28, 2018, at 7:00 PM, Grant Saviers <grants2 at pacbell.net> wrote:
> 
> I'll second the success with the CSV19 tennis ball launcher.  You won't need the top model for 60' trees but I do recommend the fishing archery spool option for paying out the line - very smooth and snag free.  The PE braid is so light that one problem is how far the wind drift will take it. Shoot with the wind if you can. Beats every other method I've seen other than a tree climber.  If you buy the kit carefully RTFM.  The tennis ball is weighted with about a dozen pennies so comes down thru firs easily.
> 
> Be careful, the weighted ball energy is dangerous. Handle with firearm rules.  Also the recoil requires aiming & flinch control like a larger bore handgun.
> 
> A really nifty accessory is the Ryobi 18v battery powered hand held inflater, especially if you have Ryobi tools.  It makes quick work of pressurizing in the field.  $19 last I saw at HD.
> 
> Grant KZ1W
> 
>> On 11/28/2018 15:34 PM, Wayne Kline wrote:
>> 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 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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