I have decided to try QRP or low power mode. I got myself a used KX2 Elecraft radio that produces about 5 watts of power. I designed a random wire antenna that has a 2 oz lead weight on one end of the wire, I swing it around and throw it up into a tree. The other end goes to a 9:1 Ballun and then to the radio. I tried this out in the backyard and it was working quite well making contacts up and down the east coast. Obviously at the end of the weekend, I had to go home and tried to pull the antenna out of the tree. Unfortunately the lead weight wrapped itself around the limb and it would not let go. So I tied the other end to a garden chair and I hoped that that would be good enough to hold it. I could come back another day and see if I could get it out of the tree. When I came back I found this, watch the video closely.
The winds and the snow has managed to untie the end tied to the chair and flip it up into the tree again. It wrapped itself around another limb and created a loop. During another storm, a limb broke off and got caught in the loop. I now have a Calder mobile that is floating in free space. The weirdest kind of feeling when you see this broken limb that looks like a tree without any roots floating in mid air. Are we back to Avatar? Or has this Charlie Brown tree caught a kite, and antenna and what else is it going to catch?
“Life: what happens to you while you are making plans…” 73 Peter.
Brightleaf Amateur Radio Club 