Video: W9BVX Helium Balloon Antenna

At the young age of 9, Bob W9BVX, visited an ARRL Field Day site with his dad and saw the most amazing thing; an HF antenna lifted into the air by a helium balloon. Ever since that day, his life's dream was to do the same thing. Watch now as he ticks another item off his 'bucket list'.



Video Produced by Michael Martens, KB9VBR

Thank you to the Wisconsin Valley Radio Association for assistance with this project: Http://www.wvraclub.org

 

The second they cinched that sharp zip-tie on the balloon neck I knew it would cut into it. You always take another piece of latex and wrap it around the neck several times before using the zip-ties.

 

Paper logs rule!

 

Surprised it lasted even an hour....

 

I tried this one time. The wind kept taking it down wind and the VSWR would shoot up of course. It is definitely for a calm day!

 

Details on resolving several of the problems displayed here: A Skyhook for the 90s, May 1997 QST...

 

Actually we are having a nylon net made to go around the balloon eliminating any stress on the balloon material. The nylon is light weight and shouldn't effect performance.

Wire will be attached to the net.

 

that really was great guy's ,let me ask you where do you buy the ballons and how much 73's great holiday's to all w5zml

 

Where did you get your helium and how much did it cost? I've been trying to do this same thing to put up a 2M repeater at 500 ft but the local helium supply is non-existent.
I'm considering switching to hydrogen if I can get that more easily.

 

I did this once. Got the crap zapped out me until I put some inductance to ground. Also could not keep it vertical in the South Florida breeze.
Live and learn and have fun!

 

If you are going to 500 feet (winds pick-up significantly above 300 feet) you will find the size of the balloon needed to keep it at 500' (and it WILL be at an angle, as the wind will be blowing it sideways) ) will be huge. Additionally, there is no envelope (balloon) material of size that will keep your gas in for very long, and you can't exactly recover the gas when you are done for the day (a few hours?), the gas volume needed will not be cheap, the weight of the tanks will be a pain, etcetera, etcetera. The balloon idea doesn't really work out unless you are fairly low (under 150'), or go extremely high (over 1,000') and add a bunch of weight to the line, along with a directional bay line against the heading of the wind, which of course makes things very expensive, requires a bunch of people, etc.

You are probably much better off spending your money on a drone (quadracopter). With a decent drone (one you can program to remain on station at a specific altitude and GPS coordinates) and some lightweight wire (or micro QRP repeater), you'll be able to easily hit 500', not have to bother with piloting it during its hover, and there will be a whole lot less trouble to get exactly what you are attempting to due (plus you can do much more with the drone). A few extra battery packs on hand, and you'll be set for a few hours of DX each time you deploy. The expense of this scenario should actually be just modestly more over the long run.

 

Years ago, I researched balloon-suported wire antennas. A single large balloon tends to be dragged down with increased wind. A disc attached to the bottom of the balloon reduces the effect. The effect is further lessened when the antenna/tether uses several smaller balloons spaced at intervals up the antenna/tether. The best setup uses a "Kytoon" (a blimp-shaped balloon). The Kytoon steers itself into the wind, and wings act to increase lift with increased wind.

The balloon material is also of concern. While latex can be over-inflated a bit w/o bursting the balloon, it is heavy and porous. You need more Helium, and will need to keep feeding it. Mylar is much lighter and no porous but, won't take much over-inflation. The gas pressure varies with temperature so, it's best to keep that in mind.

Lastly, you don't want to buy Helium from your local party supply store, as the "Party Helium" gas they sell contains air (and therefore has less lift per unit of volume). Buy the gas from a welding or industrial gas supplier.

Bryan WA7PRC

 

I hope nobody ever tries to weld with that party stuff!

 

I have used kites and balloons (www.qsl.net/g4vgo) and it was easy to work around the world on Top Band from G-land, 9V1 and YB5.

Kites for a windy day, balloons for a calm day, like having a golf club for every occassion.

I have been doing it for years.

73 de Bob KH6KG/G4VGO/9V1GO

 

"Box kites".