I made one somewhat like the one mentioned below. I actually made two, the one was with a 1" lawn sprinkler valve and the 2nd with a much larger valve. Mine looks like a Bazooka & this one below is folded like a trumpet which is much more convenient.
You can see mine near the bottom on my QRZ page. A couple of thoughts: The one mentioned below is surely more convenient to carry and is more ergonomic. I couldn't find a price but it looks like a nice kit. I would buy the largest one, you never know where you might be able to help someone who has needs taller than your QTH allows. I use PVC "Spuds", you can see one of mine on that QRZ page. Mine are about a foot long and weigh plenty, the weight helps them fall straight through the branches on the way down (my antennas are in a forest so there is no open space here). Something light like a tennis ball can bounce to & fro on the branches on way down and be a problem when pulling up the antenna with egg insulator at the end. I would use brightly colored paint, the tennis ball is bright enough but will be camouflaged in the summer by leaves. I find lifting and lowering the Spud helps me to locate it as for me, it's always far from the launch point. I mentioned the clothes pin to hold the line. I stressed the spring so it has little closing tension. I put tape on each side of the jaw to make sure the line doesn't get caught on the wood & it pulls free easily with no hang-up or damage. I use a small bike pump. With the monofilament attached it takes exactly 17 pumps to clear the tree. If you have a pressure gauge attached or to fit to the schrader valve, that'll make it easy to get the same pressure every time if you're using different pumps. It's a life-saver of effort. 73, Gary KA1J > Sometime back I bought one of those cheaper launchers that shot a > 1-1.5 oz. fishing weight with fishing line attached. It was scary > because if that fishing weight hit something other that the ground or > the fish line broke you never knew where that thing was going to land. > > > I now have a CSV19 Pneumatic Antenna Launching System like you can see > at www.antennalaunchers.com/csv19/index.html. I have used it with a > lot of success and have seen it send a tennis ball over a 105' fir > tree about half again as high. I think with the max 80# of pressure > (think that is what the max is labeled) can get a woven fish line > over a tree at least 160' tall. 100+ feet for sure. The big thing is > to have a lot of fish line on the fishing real and don't forget to > open the bail. If you start breaking lines and try splicing them > together that can be a problem catching on the reel spool. The new > woven fish lines are even smaller and I think lighter than > monofilament. Can't remember how many times I've had to search for the > tennis ball because the 30-40# fishing line broke. Even have one on my > third guy line up on my tower. > > > Wind can sometimes be a problem of course. Was really a problem with > the first launcher using that in Keizer (in town). Hitting right above > the top of a tall fir tree as a target you would be surprised just how > far off one can go. > > > Terry > > KI7M > > _________________ > Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband > Reflector > _________________ Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector