Topband: Balloon Supported Vertical

[W7TMT - Patrick]

>From personal experience I can tell you that a 2 foot Mylar balloon is not nearly big enough to carry a wire for 160. I used one to fly a 45’ length of 26 gauge wire to bring the total of a vertical I had rigged up on my sailboat to 90’.  It had enough lift for that until the wind came up.

BTW, if you were to use that wire size and admit it publicly you’ll quickly be told it has too little surface area for use on 160 and the vendor will even add a note to their Web site saying so. No matter that the antenna that would not load before did, and the contest was won for your section not withstanding.

Brian N9ADG has a well documented explanation of what it takes here. He currently holds both the ARRL and CQWW 160 records for this section (WWA).  As I recall at least one of the records was set using that antenna, perhaps both.

http://n9adg.com/antennas/86/

Patrick, W7TMT
________________________________
From: Topband <topband-bounces+w7tmt=outlook.com at contesting.com> on behalf of Dick Bingham <dick.bingham at gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, November 8, 2021 12:48:14 PM
To: topband at contesting.com <topband at contesting.com>
Subject: Topband: Balloon Supported Vertical

Greetings All

I want to try a balloon supported Vertical for 160.
Any advice on sources for balloons? Mylar material
and diameters up to 2-feet would be my choice.

73. Dick/w7wkr at CN97uj
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