If you do a lot of field/portable HF operation, you need to build this device. One can always throw a line attached to a weight (stone, baseball, water bottle, or whatever available) up a tree branch 20-30 feet high, but this "thing" will allow you to "put" the line up a tree branch 50-75 feet high much more accurately. Be sure to wear a bicycle helmet and a pair of safety glasses (hey, I also carry along my mountain bike during field operation trip so the bicycle helmet and the glasses pretty much come with the bike) when launching the line. Once the pilot line get over the intended tree branch, replace it with the nylon rope, then attach your wire vertical, sloper, inverted V or dipole antenna to the nylon rope. Connect the feed line, then hoist it up, and you are in business.

I have seen ad on QST for a similar construction for $50-60$. You can built this tool for around $10 and some scrap metal (or wood) in about 30 minutes.

The sling shot is available at Big 5 for $5.00 and the fishing reel is $4.99 at Wal-Mart.

The pictures is pretty self descriptive so no building instruction is needed...

New and Improve version (MkII??)

I found a different kind of fishing reel that has a cap which encloses the reel inside it. There is a button in the back of the reel that releases the nylon line once activated. This set up works really well since it minimizes the chance of fishing line getting caught up during launch. The cost of this reel is also $4.99 at Wal-Mart!

As I mentioned before, wear a helmet and a pair of safety glasses when launching the attached weight!

73 es Gud DX de Dan, KE6D