Topband: Kites?

[Marshall Toburen]

We used to put up an 80m Delta loop with an advertising-sized dirigible
filled with helium.  You need a dirigible with back fins so it pivots in
the wind and keeps the antenna vertical.  Took almost a full cylinder of
helium to fill the dirigible.  We had a dentist in the club that had access
to the helium.

73, Marshall AA0FO

On Tue, Dec 20, 2022, 6:03 PM Roger Kennedy <roger at wessexproductions.co.uk>
wrote:

>
> Back in the 1970s when I lived on the South Coast, a local to me - G3RCE -
> used to regularly
> put up a Half Wave vertical on 160m suspended by a Hydrogen-filled Weather
> balloon.
>
> However, unlike a Kite which needs decent wind to stay aloft, with a
> Balloon
> you want NO wind !
>
> As suggested, he found it worked much better than a Quarter wave vertical,
> not just due to earth losses, but I guess the radiating part was much
> higher. He used aluminium wire, and running about 600 watts output. The
> vertical was tethered about 5 feet off the ground, with a horizontal wire
> about 50ft long running to the upstairs window of his shack, where he had a
> parallel-tuned ATU with a link winding to the Tx.
>
> Incidentally, although in recent years I have used Dipoles, at several QTHs
> over the years I have used an end-fed half wave on 160m, with no issues -
> this was normally where the shack was on the third floor, so I didn't have
> to bring the feed-point down towards ground.
>
> Roger G3YRO
>
>
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