• Stickless kite info wanted

    From John_Nix_KC0KBG@techie.com@21:1/5 to Sherwood Botsford on Fri Jun 23 15:47:15 2017
    On Tuesday, July 14, 1992 at 5:01:58 PM UTC-5, Sherwood Botsford wrote:
    I take groups of teens on extended wilderness trips. (Canoe expeditions in Northern Sasketchewan and the North West Territories) For communication we use
    a single side band radio (SBX11A) operating at 3.3 Mhz.

    The antenna for this is quite long. (45 meters minimum) and is supposed to be
    suspended a minimum of 23 meters off the ground. This is difficult to do in boreal forest without running a clear cut operation. Currently our success rate
    on establishing contact is running about 20% on any given day.

    One of the alternatives I'm investigating is using a kite to suspend the antenna. Usually we have steady wind in mid-afternoon on the lakes. I would like a stickless design, as it would be easy to wad up and stuff in a pack.

    Ideally I want the antenna to be vertical, but any angle over 45 degrees will do. The kite should be fairly stable, and needs to be able to support a couple
    pounds of line. (Antenna is 20 guage wire) I also need it to be easily adjustable to run in a variety of wind conditions.

    I posted earlier in rec.aviation (Hadn't occured to me that there was a rec.kites) and received several good suggestions. (Thanks) I figure here that there may be people who have already done this, and would point out the gotchas.

    sherwood

    Third place to post: Ham Radio sites. 3.3 MHz is just below the 80 Meter band (3.5-4.0 MHz).
    Kites: Try "Into The Wind" (Boulder, Colorado).
    You might want to attach a boaters foam key ring float to the kite so it stays close to the surface if it hits water.
    Wire: I would try thin braided copper or bronze lake trout line.
    If you do this over a lake you may get the fresh water equivalent of what HAMs call "a Salt Water Linear".
    This weekend is Field Day. Good Luck. John_Nix_KC0KBG@techie.com

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)