Tree Fishing
Tree Fishing
10 metre fibreglass mast to put up wire antennas
One end of my 204 ft doublet at the cottage has been much lower for the past month or so since the branch supporting the end broke. I hauled my DK9SQ mast up to the cottage this past weekend to use as a tool to help fix this.
The trick that seems to work well is to attach a J-shaped hook near the end of the mast with electrical tape (I used a chunk of coathanger) and then bend it closed and tape it so you have a small stiff loop. Locate this a few inches down the mast as the mast tip tends to be a bit too flexible.
Run some fishing line through the loop and attach a small
wrench or something with enough weight to pull the fishing line off of a reel.
Stand about 10 or so feet from the base of the tree and slowly start to extend the pole up as you keep the fishing line taut (you don't want the wrench getting caught up in branches). As you extend the pole you can move a bit closer to the tree and position the tip with the loop over the branch that you want to use as a support. When you clear the branch release the fishing line and let the weight drop over the branch to the ground.
Temporarily tie off the end with the wrench to some bushes and release some more slack in the fishing line so that you can move the pole away from the tree and collapse it without undoing what you just did.
Use the fishing line to pull up a heavier rope to support your antenna.
With a DK9SQ or similar mast you can easily reach a 35+ foot branch, which is not bad. Standing on a step ladder (be careful) you can extend your reach to 40 feet which is not too shabby at all. I have used the slingshot / fishing line trick for years but I have found that it requires a lot of patience as it is pretty "hit or miss" (pardon the pun) and the
fishing line has a tendency to get caught up in almost everything (especially when you miss).
This trick with the pole is actually pretty fool proof and with a bit of practice you can accurately get a line over a tree for a permanent antenna installation quite quickly. These masts weight only about 3 pounds so even fully extended one person can manage it. Just be sure to twist the mast sections to lock them as you extend, otherwise the tension on the fishing line will cause the mast to collapse as you are trying to raise it. Extending the mast almost vertically near the tree trunk allows you to avoid most of the "pesky little branches" that tend to snag the fishing line and loop.
I repeated this exercise while standing on my deck at the cottage (thus extending my reach) and I put up a backup W3EDP inverted-L antenna by myself fairly quickly.
Note that the same technique could be used for portable operating when using one of these masts as an antenna support. I often resort to using an inverted-vee when operating portable for simplicity, but generally speaking a flat-top will out perform an inverted-vee . You could take a hybrid approach of using the mast first to secure end supports for your wire antenna and the then use the mast itself to support the centre / feedline portion of the antenna.
The DK9SQ mast is available from Kanga USA. Also the poles from Jackite are also very good value for the $$.
Monday, November 21, 2011