Posted: 6/5/2014 1:01:59 PM EDT
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Tree Guys here today, took down a Monster Pine and while they were cleaning up I mentioned I'd like a quote for climbing and putting up a hook/pulley for a Future Antenna Project in another big pine behind the house.
$75 (cash) later: 
to the pulley 
silver circle about 3/4 way up anyways, thinking a 80m Inverted Vee-type coax fed from the EMCOMM Box (TS-50) Porta-shack.... |
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Dude, build a cheap slingshot antenna hanger. $30 in parts and you don't need to climb a tree. I've had several dipoles hung that way at 50+ feet AGL.
LINK TO ARFCOM THREAD |
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I use a cheap Daisy slingshot and a 1 ounce lead sinker tied to 30lb test fishing line.
I unroll the length of line I need on the ground and shoot the sinker up over a limb. Gravity does the rest and the sinker will drop to the ground. This lets me tie my nylon rope on and I pull it up back over the limb and attach my antenna as required. It costs about $5.00 for pure WIN and a lot less hassle than climbing a tree. 
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I'll be doing something similar when I put up the moxon array, mainly because I want to cherry pick which branches have to go on the 2 support trees and not hack anything that doesn't need to go. I'll be having him hang loose fitting cables with protective wraps and expensive non-binding pulleys so I can raise and lower the array with a hand-crank at ground level. I have already haggled a price and it is well worth it to me. |
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The last big tree on my property ended up in my kitchen during Hurricane Gustav. $150,000 later we've rebuilt, minus trees.
I envy you guys that can put up towers and have the facilities to erect up in the clear antennas. That said I'm in the planning stages for the winter attic antenna rebuild session. Thinking 80m loop which will give me a new band to work at a minimum. Tweak the 2m beams so they are stacked in vertical polarization. Don't do 2m SSB DX anymore so don't need the horizontal polarization unit. Make it so a quick trip up the attic can turn the beams up 20 degrees or so for satellite ops. Build some sort of 6m gain antenna. Delta loop or Moxon. Not sure what to do from 60m to 10m. |