I purchased my Maxcon off-center fed dipole in November of 2022...but due to weather, holidays, sickness, and laziness...I wasn't able to get it up in the air until the end of January. I'm a classic over thinker. Believe it or not, that isn't always a good thing. I had laid out in my head that I would install my OCF dipole in a horizontal or "flat top" configuration, balun at or above 50ft, and the legs North/South. Upon inspecting my lot, I realized a few things:
-I didn't know which trees would work. Varying heights, obstructions (such as limbs and branches), and proximity to the shack all complicated this plan.
-I also didn't know how I would get the antenna up. I had no bow and arrow, no fishing poles, no boom truck, no friends with the power of flight. Just a DJI Mini 2 drone.
After much pondering, I realized I should just put the antenna in an inverted vee configuration at least until I figured out how I would arrange the flat top. I tied some paracord to my drone and flew it straight up in the air, over the top of a tree, and then started to land on the other side. The issue? The paracord snagged on a limb causing the drone to tumble to the ground and break. I don't mean break a propeller, I mean break the damn arm off and crack another. I retired the drone to the pile of "things to be fixed" and went back to the drawing board.
I had many fellow hams on the local repeater remind me that they used "spud guns" to get their wire antennas up. Many offered to let me borrow theirs or to come shoot a line for me. I thought about my tendencies to over-think, be a bit obsessive with getting it just right, and how I might need to move or hang other dipoles later on. I decided I needed my own air canon.
A few Googles later, I found the KR4LO Air Boss. Sure I could probably build such a device, but I had too many projects already including repairing a broken drone. So I ordered the air boss and reel kit. It arrived quickly and was a pretty heavy duty device.
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| KR4LO Air Boss |
I watched some videos about attaching the reel and how to shoot it. When Saturday rolled around, I was ready to test. I filled the chamber with 40PSI of air and shot the 2oz sinker over the tall tree with ease. I tied my paracord to the fishing line I shot over and then reeled it over the tree. Then I had to do some shimmy and shaking of the paracord to get it clear of other limbs. I tied on the balun, and hoisted it high in the tree. I tied rope to the ends of the antenna and pulled them into the inverted vee shape (legs more than 90 degrees apart) and tied them off. A quick check with my RigExpert antenna analyzer showed everything to be ok. I connected the rig, but had to leave due to some previous plans.
Sunday morning my eyes popped open and I went straight to the shack. I made great contacts on many bands and modes. I had an SSB QSO with Bill (ZS6CCY) in South Africa and worked a dozen or so Japanese stations on FT8 with good reports. The antenna is finally up and working well!
In typical Joey fashion, I'm already planning the next antenna. I'm thinking a 3 element triband yagi or perhaps a hex beam...
73 fer now de K4LST sk
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