[Elecraft] RF in the Trees

[Fred Jensen]

On 6/26/2014 4:12 PM, Rick Bates, WA6NHC wrote:
> This may be off topic, but in light of it being Field Day Weekend in
> the US....

It's radio, Eric will probably see it as relevant, unless we overdo it, 
which we do at times. :-)

> The arrow has an issue because it gets hung up or in branches and
> doesn't have enough mass to pass through some branches or allow
> gravity to pull it down.  Should it comes later, the risks of
> impalement can ruin the day.

I wrapped some heavy, old solder I had around the arrow tip in two 
layers, and then wrapped that with electrical tape.  So far, it's always 
come down ... sometimes takes a little while with wind moving the 
branches. The two layers of solder make the tip very blunt, impalement 
is unlikely, bruise maybe if you don't have a hat on.

Regardless of how you do it, my experience is that an Inv-V with the 
apex pulled up close to a limb but with the legs pulled out from the 
tree works just fine.  It's hard to beat a horizontal 80m dipole with 
the center between two 90 ft pine or fir trees more than a wavelength 
apart, but sometimes we obsess about antennae minutiae.
>
> The slingshot can improve over the arrow by increasing mass but can
> be equally dangerous.  Accurate shots are challenging.

Arrow works better for me in the field, but the slingshot is a lot 
smaller and lighter.  There's a reason arrows are long although the 
sling worked for David, I guess.

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 2014 Cal QSO Party 4-5 Oct 2014
- www.cqp.org