Anyone ever thought of using or used a drone to hang a wire antenna?

The tree I want to hang one end from is in the center of a large cluster. The wrist rocket with the fishing reel is not going to reach it. Too much height and too much distance to clear other trees.

I have seen helicopters with an extra channel for payload drop but I have not seen anything like a quad with a payload drop.


Only other choice I might have would be a pneumatic line launcher but a quad copter sounds like more fun.

If you have one that can drop the line, or rig it to do so, it would work. But it would probably have to be  a rather light line. I don't think they have much for payload. I have wondered about that as well, but don't have the "problem" that you do!

We have thought about doing this and even using one to hoist a thin wire to BE an antenna. I'd probably use fishing line on the drone initially. And if at all possible have a button to drop the line should it get snagged.

What a cool idea!

I like the idea and now plan to steal...err...borrow my son's quad copter to give it a try. I agree that fishing line is probably the best way to go.
Fishing line, hoist line, antenna. Hmm, good idea for a precision line placement as long as I don't crash.

I agree, it is an excellent idea!

Spinning blades + long thin wires + altitude + expensive toys + video =???

What could possibly go wrong?  Either way looking forward to the video.

Eta:  If anything epic happens remember to shout "World Star!"

Hmm... use 50lb fishing line, just like I do with a slingshot... brilliant!  Need to borrow a drone now.  

You must have been the one to post this exact thing on QRZ.


Some light mononfilament and a lead weight it to be dropped as a pull line.

Someone posted on QRZ that they had successfully done this by taping the line to the bottom. After experimenting with the amount of tape was able to pull it loose.

Yes, I have thought about this and discussed it with a couple of my friends, none of whom own a drone.

I have a tree that is about 10 feet from the property line that I would like to use as one anchor point for one end of a wire antenna. There are two problems with this:
1) there is another tree between it and open space
2) If I stay on my property, the angle is too steep to shoot an arrow over the desired tree without having it come down in the second tree at which point I can't recover the line or the arrow. I have never really gotten along with my neighbor. Common courtesy dictates that I am not going to go on her property to shoot the arrow and I am also not going to go over and ask her permission. Again, if I stay on my property I am shooting the arrow at maybe an 80 degree angle and it comes down too close to the tree to recover the arrow. I need to stand back a lot further (on her property) to pull it off.

So I have spent a lot of time thinking of a way to get a line over that tree. And, at one point I thought about tying a fishing line on a drone, flying it over the tree and then landing the drone on the other side. Walk over, get the end of the fishing line, then tie a bigger line onto the fishing line and pull it back over.

The only thing stopping me is that I don't have a drone to do it with.

A few years ago, I had a tree get hit by lightning and it split the tree from top to bottom. This tree was about 80 feet tall. I was afraid to cut it down myself because if anything went sideways, it would fall on my neighbors garage and boat. So I hired a tree trimmer to take it down. While he was here, I asked him to use his bucket truck to put a line over another tree of similar height: the tree trimmer estimated it to be over 70 feet tall. I took some antenna rope, tied a 12" wrench on the end and told the guy to go up in the bucket and simply toss it over the tree. It fell to the ground with the weight of the wrench and I hoisted up one end of the antenna. I then asked him to do the same at the other end with the aforementioned tree and he said the ground was too soft to drive his truck over to the other tree but if I called him back, he would do it when the weather was drier. However, I have called him back and he never got back to me: I don't think he wants to come out here to do that even though I would be happy to pay him whatever his rate is for a very simple job.
This brings us to plan C. If I can't do it any other way I am going to hire him to take down another tree (the one my antenna is in now) and while he is there, have him put the line up over the tree I want to use.


This tree is a little taller than the one my antenna is in now, but the big thing is that if I can get the antenna in that tree, the feedline will fall directly down to my shack window. As it is now, it falls about 10 feet to the side (right over the driveway). So its a win-win: the antenna will be a little higher and the feedline will be perfectly positioned. As it is right now, my antenna is about 70 feet high on the ends but the center sags down to about 35'. I have a fiberglass mast outside my shack window with my 2m/440 antenna on the top of it. If I get the antenna in that other tree, and the feedline falls straight down to my shack, I can then use the fiberglass mast to support the center of the wire without causing the fiberglass pole to bend over. I am hoping that the wire antenna will sort of guy the fiberglass pole and allow me to extend it all the way up (50 feet).

160M OCF Windom
Going to trench about 85 feet under the driveway. Lay in either 3 or 4 inch pvc conduit with 180 sweeps at each end. Stuff each end with stainless steel wool to keep out the critters. The South property line it is about 375 feet from the house.

Yes. I have. Quite seriously.

And when I do it, I'll show video footage and explain it fully.


It's just been too windy here to do it.

ETA:
Hint: Cigar Cutter + servo.

I understand how you did it. What did you use for a lifting platform and radio?

This is a pretty neat way to do it and looks fun too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taLqFCUdxqs

I haven't done it yet, but I'm using my quad. There's a thread somewhere on it.



I need to get a picture with the thrust systems on it, but you get the idea.

The pneumatic tennis ball launcher might be more fun.  A friend  recently bought one (not sure which one).  It came as a kit, and on the day he put it together, it was cold and raining, so, he decided to try it out in his garage.  Big mistake. He promptly blew a hole in his garage wall. Not all the way through, but the drywall now has a tennis ball hole in it.   He then tried launching it over his house, and said it went so high, he thought he was going to lose it.  And that was only with partial pressure.  He said the thing is damn dangerous, and has to be treated like a firearm.

Anyway, it worked, and he managed to get his antenna back up in the tree with one shot.

I'd love to try it with a drone but I don't have one, and I crashed and sold my Trex 450 clone heli.  I did buy one of these last Fall but haven't tried yet.  http://www.kr4loairboss.com/
I need to get a 160-L about 50' up into a Walnut tree about 10' from the property line.  Gotta be real careful with overshoot to the neighbors but I can probably ask them and walk over there for the launch.

I remember making a potato launcher 15 years ago and after we ran out of potatoes we started using Black Walnuts with the green skin on them in the Summer.  We were sending them 500' or more easily!

http://www.sportsmansguide.com/product/index/ar-15-golf-ball-launcher?a=502765

This is the launcher I have been looking at:
http://www.akbeng.com/products/antenna-launchers/

Fixed it.

If anyone in VT wants to try it, I'll offer up my drone.  I can hook the line to the camera gimbal and just tilt the camera from the remote to unhook the line.

Wow... This is getting moved to the top of my list.

I don't understand why you need something to remotely unhook the line.
Why not just fly it up real high vertically, then fly it over the tree draping the line over the tree and land the drone on the other side ?


As was sort of mentioned in my previous post, I normally use an arrow fired from a compound bow to launch lines over trees. Like at field day. But here in my own yard, there are too many other trees and the arrow just gets stuck in another tree.

I wanted to put up an HF antenna at my shed. My shed is actually sold as a cabin: it is two story and has a big porch along one side of it. I have porch furniture out there along with a porch swing and it would be nice to sit out there and operate the KX3 or the KX1. But, it is sort of in the woods with trees all around it. Trying to launch a line over a tree only results in the weight sailing over the intended tree and into another one where I can't get the line back down.

444 You kind of answered your own question.

It would be great if I could fly over and just land on the other side. Problem with that is the tree I want is in the middle of the grove of trees. It is a good 60-70 feet to the clearing. The picture must have been taken in winter as the grove does not appear to be as thick as it does in person.


Does anyone see a problem with running the antenna North and South being in EM94. I can move the long end to the South East corner but I don't think that will help. The short side cant be moved as there is too many LARGE trees between the house and the feed point.

You need a tater gun with a fishing reel on it.  It uses a projectile that is made out of pvc and has an eyelet on it to tie your string to.   A couple psi of air  and you can shoot a long way.  I have a few friends around that have these to hang wire antennas.

I don't see any problems with that.