The following are collected articles/posts about long vertical antennas for the lower frequencies... #1 --------------------------- Date: Sun, 14 Jan 1996 17:24:55 -0700 To: N1MM@aol.com From: Dean Norris Subject: Re: 160 Balloon Vertical Uplifting Experienc At 15:37 1/14/96 -0500, you wrote: >In a message dated 96-01-14 14:19:28 EST, you write: >>I launched my 160 meter balloon vertical for the first time for CW NAQP. It >>was an uplifting experience. I think it is the best way to handle 160 from a >>city lot (mine is 45' X 145'.) >How do you keep a balloon vertical from touching power lines if the wind >blows too hard? >73, >Tom - N1MM Hi Tom... The best way is to live in an area with underground lines. The closest aboveground linew to this QTH is 1/2 mile. Nice and quiet too. I must admit, the idea of the balloon ant is neat. How can I contact the seller of these? How long will they stay up? cdn C. Dean Norris, Esq. Amateur Radio Station K7NO e-mail to dnorris@k7no.com #2 --------------------------- Date: Mon, 15 Jan 1996 11:21:14 -0500 (EST) From: KWIDELITZ@delphi.com Subject: 160 Meter Balloon Vertical - More Info I've had a number of responses to my earlier post. Here is some more info. The SWR was 1:1 at 1830 Khz right out of the box. At 1800 Khz SWR was 1.7:1. So the bandwidth a fairly broad. The balloon itself is fairly heavy duty, with a long neck for easy sealing. The fishing line I used in addition to the antenna wire kept the balloon from floating into my yagis or the power line that runs behind the house. NP4Z sent me a message that I was the only 6 he heard. K5ZD said I was among a few CA stations he heard but didn't hear him. I did work FL & GA on the balloon vertical. I don't have the email address for Ron from whom I purchased the kit. It was advertised in the Ham Trader Yellow Sheets. 73. Ken, AB6FO, KWIDELITZ@DELPHI.COM #3 --------------------------- Date: Sun, 4 Feb 1996 19:42:15 -0600 Reply-To: "Jon K. Jones" Balloon vertical antennas have generated interest from "city lot" ops on the TopBand looking for ways to radiate a better signal. A problem has been where to procure balloons and associated hardware. I ran across a post from Ken, AB6FO on the KA9FOX Web Site(www.4w.com/ham/ka9fox) that listed a kit for a 1/4 wave 160 balloon vertical. It comes with a 4' balloon, driven element wire, radials, swivel hook, and fishing line for $40. You supply the helium. Order from: Ron L. Chudy, WA7UQV, 3324 N. 7th, Tacoma, WA 98406 I have no financial interest in Ron's kit. I use a home- brew set-up with a 5' balloon and 1/4 wave of 28 ga. wire. Jon NO0Y jkjones@fn.net *Note from K4JRB 9/22/96...Jon is always loud in GA with his balloon vertical. #4 --------------------------- Date: Tue, 13 Aug 96 22:10:43 PDT From: k4sb@avana.net Subject: RE: balloon verticals OK, John, this is from my experience. Have been flying these things in the 60 for over 20 years. A good source for balloons is a local Army/Navy surplus store. They generally carry weather balloons normally meant to be inflated to a diameter of 6'. As a rule, I have found something on the order of 3.5' to be the proper diameter of the inflated balloon to give it proper lifting strength. You don't need #14 wire. If you can find some hard drawn enamel ( used to rebuild motors ) #18 will do just fine, and reduce the size of the weight you have to lift. On the matter of weight, if you have two supports in the general neighborhood of where you will be flying the beast, run a piece of light weight line between the two. This can then serve as the bottom of the thing, and you can use any size wire you wish from the ground to the baloon, and then your lightweight stuff. This also gives you a little leeway in case of a wind. My line is 90' high, and by simple rules of aerodynamics, cannot blow over more than 45 degrees plus the drag coefficent of the baloon. I have found anything over 1/2 wavelength to not justify the effort. Have flown them from 240' to over 700'. Besides, feeding a 1/2 is simplicity at its best. Just use a paralle LC circuit. and tap the coil for a 1:1 match. By the way, while you are attaching the antenna to the tuner, it's a good idea to clip a long test lead to the antenna and ground. You'd be amazed at how much build up you get. Nothing serious, but enough to wish you had grounded the sucker before you touched the end of the wire. Keep in mind you have an antenna 250' long of so....If you can reach a power line with the antenna, don't do it. I have about 6 acres here, with 100 foot oaks blocking the way to the power lines, and I still use the rule. As a general rule, you can refill the baloon about 6 times from a single tank of gas. You mention hellium, but hydrogen, is cheaper and has a much higher lifting ability. Incidentally, tie a string from the baloon about 2 feet long and make a little loop in the top of the wire and tie the string to that. DO NOT attach the antenna directly to the baloon. It's a good idea not to smoke around the baloon if you use hydrogen. In my opinion, you're getting ripped off on the price. My supplier charges $35 for a full tank. And you can make a fitting to go on the top of the tank from common hardware items. You don't need a pressure regulator. During the day, I will either leave the thing up, or if it's sorta windy, will pull it down by the fishing line I attach to the top, and teater it off. If you overinflate slightly to begin with, it will not be necessary to recharge the thing. Helium by the way, will escape through the rubber of the baloon. As a matter of fact, you are constantly losing it from the tank also. It has the ability to squirm through stainless steel. Of course, that takes a little longer. If it's quiet, you can use it for receive also, but you still need Bevs., ect. Also, if you will use a coax switch and ground the coax during receive, you will be amazed. What I do is use a small low voltage relay to trigger the coax relay. The small relay is controlled by the amp relay in my Omni, and effectively, I key the amp by keying the small relay, which sends 12V to the coax relay. I use the other side of the relay to close the amp. In effect, I key the amp through 250' or so of Romex. This way, if the antenna relay, fails to actuate, the amp will not key, and the SWR protection circuits of the Omni, will shut it down. OK, this is too long. Enjoy, and let me assure you nobody messes with that antenna with a Titan tied to it, and believe me, they have tried. Best ED Name: Ed Sleight E-mail: k4sb@avana.net #5 --------------------------- Date: Sun, 14 Jan 1996 14:17:25 -0500 (EST) From: KWIDELITZ@delphi.com Subject: 160 Balloon Vertical Uplifting Experienc I launched my 160 meter balloon vertical for the first time for CW NAQP. It was an uplifting experience. I think it is the best way to handle 160 from a city lot (mine is 45' X 145'.) This was from a kit that cost $40 from Ronald Chudy, 3324 N. 7th, Tacoma WA 98406 (Sorry I forget the call and phone number, but Ron is on the reflector.) First of all, it was the most fun I've had putting up an antenna. The kit was complete and the directions good. The hardest part was running the 4 120' radials from a front second floor balcony over my house (and in one case, the neighbor's house) and out of the way along the neighbor's garage and my garage. The radials were therefore elevated from 25 to 10 feet along the way. One radial went across the sidewalk to the curtilege and in some trees thereon. I did take a few cuts on the hands and arms from running the coax cable along a chain link fence covered with bougainvilla. A small tank of helium cost about $26 from a balloon store a few blocks away. Filling the balloon to 4' was fun and easy. I soldered the element wire to a SO-239, attached the radial ends to lugs and the lugs to the SO-239 with a small screw and washer. The balloon is also secured with fishing line, a good thing because the element wire broke at the SO-239 twice. Once because I didn't use a strain relief cord and once because I didn't do a good soldering job after the first break. Friday night I did some listening and it seemed the vertical was quiet and a good 3 to 4 S units better than a shortened sloper I have coming off my tower from 70' at a 45 degree angle. It was much noisier Saturday evening during the NAQP. While I worked everyone I heard, my problem is still hearing them. And I couldn't hear anyone on my K6STI loop that I couldn't hear on the balloon vertical or sloper. I worked a personal best 20 mults on 160, but I don't know how the other 6's did. My total QSO's on 160 was down from last January, but the conditions didn't seem that great around hear, certainly not as good as the last few nights when there were a bunch of Europe packet spots out. (Remember that is a big deal in CA.) If you are on the East Coast and heard me but I didn't hear you, I would like to know. I hope to have a short beverage up to try out with the balloon vertical for the 160 contest. 73. Ken, AB6FO, KWIDELITZ@DELPHI.COM #6 --------------------------- Date: Tue, 13 Aug 1996 18:06:00 -0400 From: gswanson@arrl.org (Swanson, Glenn, KB1GW) Subject: RE: balloon verticals From a 14-page article by NK5IS and N5UDJ: "Balloons: Buying surplus balloons may be a false economy. The Kaysam balloon has an initial thickness of 0.0035 inch; at burst altitude, it will be approximately 0.0001 inch. This is extremely fragile. If the age of the balloon is past the date code, the surface material may have lost "elasticity," and it can burst whenever or wherever it chooses. It is much better to work with "fresh" balloons. Be careful to avoid directly touching the balloon with bare skin, because the body oil from the skin attacks the balloon material. Soft cotton gloves or surgical gloves are a good choice to wear while working with the balloon. Balloons come in a variety of sizes, starting with as little as 30 grams up to huge ones that require 12 bottles of helium to fill. Table 1 lists approximate price and burst altitude. Of the various balloon suppliers, Kaymont Comnsolidated does not have a minimum order. See the list of sources for the address. Table 1: Toltex size: Price: Burst altitude: Payload weight: (grams) (US) (feet) (lbs.) 100 $7.50 40,000 1.5 300 $15 76,000 4 800 $28 99,000 6 1200 $45 104,000 over 6 lbs. Balloon Sources: Kaymount Consolidated Industries Box 348 Huntington Station, NY 11746 Kaysam Corp. Patterson, NJ Raven Industries Box 5107 Sioux Falls, SD 57117 (605) 336-2750" - - - - - - - - - - - The information above is from an article that appeared in "Proceedings of the ARRL National Educational Workshop" (1995 ed.) (Proceedings is available for $12 (plus $4 shipping) from the ARRL. It contains: "Tips on Recruiting new hams; Teaching Amateur Radio Courses; Bringing Amateur Radio into the classroom; and Getting New Hams on the air." Sincere 73, Glenn Swanson, KB1GW Educational Programs Coordinator, ARRL Educational Activities Department ARRL Web: http://www.arrl.org/ #7 --------------------------- From: JBaumgarte Subject: balloon verticals Date: Tuesday, August 13, 1996 3:25PM Decided to try this for 160 this season, but have a few questions for anyone who might have tried one. Picked up some neat "hollow" wire with kevlar liner at Dayton--very light, but #14 size. Have the base, radials, etc. pretty well figured out, but wonder about the balloon? Local gas supplier wants $35 lease for tank, $35 for regulator (purchase), and $32 for 121 cu. ft. of helium. (reasonable?) Assuming I can find a 3' balloon, how long will one hold the gas?, how much gas is required (simple volume of sphere is not enough--need to know the typical pressure), any good ideas on locating a good balloon. Many thanks for any suggestions. John, K0IJL, CAC Dakota Division #8 --------------------------- Date: Mon, 22 Jan 1996 17:56:50 -0500 (EST) From: Wallace Offutt Subject: Help on Wire for Balloon-supported GP for CQWW 160 At the last minute I have decided to try putting up a balloon-supported ground plane for the CQWW 160 TEST this weekend. The guy in 7-land who sells these antenna kits was hospitalized last week and couldn't get one in the mail to me in time, so I have to make it myself. Can anybody tell me what kind of wire to use? I'll have to try to obtain it at local cable and wire outlet. Dimensions of the vertical element and the radials would also help if you have them. If this antenna works, I may try using it from JA in Feb ARRL DX CW. Or would the QRN in a Tokyo suburb be too much? Thanks and 73 Hal Offutt K8HVT / 7J1AAI woffutt@netaxis.com #9 --------------------------- Date: 25 Jul, 1996 18:51:05 GMT From: Kevin Muenzler Subject: Re: TopBand: Balloon Verticals - Summary Thanks to all who replied, here is a summary. (not in any particular order) On Thu, 25 Jul 1996, Craig Clark wrote: >Go back to 1970's QST. Look up Kitoon articles done by guys at Ohio State On Thursday, July 25, 1996 4:40 AM, Jeffrey Maass[SMTP:jmaass@freenet.columbus.oh.us] wrote: ...and some of us from those days at the OSU Radio Observatory and OSU Stadium with the Kitoon are still alive and kicking! A vertical supported by a balloon is still a vertical, and all physical laws still apply. The main difficulties with balloons/kitoons/dirigibles are: 1) Keeping them as vertical as possible. Even the slightest wind will drive a balloon towards the horizontal. The Kitoon had fins and generated additional lift in the wind, trying to climb into it. Even so, a little bit of ice or rain (i.e. additional weight) would result in a 'mostly howizotal vertical'. 2) Keeping them connected to the ground. You can't use heavy wire/rope/cable to tether them because of the weight concerns. Using the antenna wire is the most efficient solution, but a 5/8-wave vertical on 160 is still a lot of #20 or #22 wire! Ours broke, eventually reulting in the loss of the Kitoon. On Wednesday, July 24, 1996 5:14 PM, Dave Henderson, (Nawvemburr Zeeero Dawg House)[SMTP:n0dh@comtch.iea.com] wrote: Balloon verticals work fine.....aslong as the winds not blowing! If you have lots of tall pine trees then Inverted L's work almost as well. I've wondered if those little advertising "derigibles with the fins wouldnt solve some of the wind problem as they tend to "fly into the wind" and not layover as much as the surplus WX ballons do in the wind. Ground is the 2nd most importnat thing to worry about after the driven element. you will still need to invest in good ground screen or perhaps you could do something with elevated radials in and Ground plane configuration. Good luck dave n0Dh dit dit On Wednesday, July 24, 1996 3:14 PM, David Feldman[SMTP:dgf@netcom.com] wrote: Only thing I've ever heard is to stay WELL clear of power lines (for obvious reasons). I live on 4 acres and have considered the idea as well. Please let me know (or post back to the list) what you hear about this topic! 73 Dave WB0GAZ dgf@netcom.com On Wednesday, July 24, 1996 10:32 AM, Walter Miller[SMTP:aj6t@slip.net] wrote: Balloon verticals work GREAT on topband. I suggest you make one about 165 feet tall and match with a series cap at the base. Use at least 4 elevated quarter radials, and install a ferrite bead line isolater in the coax at the feedpoint. This will be a killer transmit antenna. Install Beverages (at LEAST 350 feet long) for receive. Look for me on topband sometime. 73, Walt Walter Miller, AJ6T Saratoga, CA USA CM87 Reply to aj6t@slip.net On Wednesday, July 24, 1996 7:54 PM, Jon K. Jones[SMTP:jkjones@fn.net] wrote: Kevin: I use a 4 or 5 ft. balloon with 1/4 wave of wire for my 160M operation. Have around 75 countries worked running 100w. Like any 1/4 wave vertical - the more radials the better it works. Main downside is wind. If wind over 12-15 mph the antenna will blow down. I live in a C C & R restricted neighborhood, so this is my only alternative for an effective 160 antenna. If you can put up outside antennas, shunt feeding your tower works well. A full quarter wave vertical tower does fine. Jon NO0Y There were a few others that were variations of the above. Again, Thanks to all. 73, Kevin, WB5RUE wb5rue@amsat.org #10 --------------------------- Date: Fri, 26 Jul 1996 14:28:15 -0400 (EDT) From: Jeffrey Maass Subject: Re: TopBand: Balloon Verticals On Fri, 26 Jul 1996 KD1IA@ids.net wrote: > Tnx Jeff, If I can find a good balloon or Kitoon I might give the > 1/2 wave or full vertical dipole a try, Tnx fer the info I might > sitll be able tofind something Miltiary surplus I think the navy > still usees somethign like kitoons. tnx agn 73 de John kd1ia I looked around on the Web yesterday, and found a place in NC that makes Kitoon-like blimps for advertising purposes. They are: Blimpworks, (704) 455-6153 Web site: http://msmall.com/blimp/ They have at least 7 models listed, ranging from 10' x 4' to 30'x10' ! I asked for a catalog, although the Web site gives most of what you'd need to know. I'm copying this reply to the Topband list for anyone else who might be interested. 73, Jeff Maass (jmaass@freenet.columbus.oh.us) Amateur Radio K8ND USPSA/IPSC # L-1192 NROI/CRO NW of Columbus Ohio **EOF**