Simple Ham Radio Antennas

If you can't see the video, please insert this title URL into your browser search box: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCyyH0a_Cpk. One of the major issues facing ARRL Field Day participants is how to launch your dipole, random length, and end-fed antennas into nearby trees. In this video from the Maple-Newton Amateur Radio Club in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, we see how a homebrew compressed air cannon put this antenna farm into some tall trees.  You can find plans for such devices on the internet. While this air cannon certainly works, it requires a certain technical expertise to build one without endangering yourself and others. When I face the antenna launching problem, I take a simpler and perhaps safer route:  I use my trusty Walmart slingshot, some fishing line, a few sinkers, a long length of rope, and a sturdy antenna to put my dipoles and end-fed wires into nearby trees.  Whatever launch method you use, please consider safety first before you launch...

If you can't see the video, please insert this title URL into your browser search box: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCyyH0a_Cpk. Approximately 40,000 radio amateurs from the United States and Canada are expected to participated in the upcoming ARRL Field Day Emergency Communications Exercise.  The event occurs on the fourth-full weekend of June and is designed to test our emergency communications capabilities in the "field." One of the major challenges of Field Day is the selection and erection of antennas to cover the weekend of portable operations.  If your amateur radio club finds an area with plenty of tall trees, you may find these natural supports are perfect for your dipoles, inverted vees, slopers, and loops.  The problem, of course, is to get your antenna elements near the top of these trees with as little safety and engineering risk as possible. Your launch platform can be as simple as my homemade slingshot or as complex as the compressed air cannon ...