Arborist Throw Lines & Antennas

 Yesterday's outing was once again to the High Bluff Trail (previous outings here) to tune up old and test out new gear for the winter hiking season.  Long story short, I brought the QRP radio and made one HF contact and two SARNET-FL repeater contacts.  Nothing to write home about, but it was fun.  However this was the debut of a real game-changer:

Tuner, plastic bags, and one-earbud not included.

Even though I was only putting a line up about 25' to use an end-fed rigged as an inverted-V, that was the easiest 25' throw I've ever done.  First time out of the box and never used before, it took me only two tries to put the line exactly where I wanted it.  Then I practiced on a ~40' limb and, while the results were decidedly more mixed, limbs up to the 50' range seem now within reach.  The difference between working with the 21' "mini" W3EDP antenna and the 43' "medium" W3EDP is like night and day.  Putting the line up 85' for the full-on version is forever beyond my reach however.  That's OK, I'll continue to use it horizontally for 80 & 160m NVIS work.  In the meantime though, getting the mini up will be a snap and getting the medium up to full stretch is possible.  (Going to need to practice a little more though for that medium 43' one.)

Onward to the links & recommendations part.  Here's where I got mine: throw line & weight and throw line bag.  (huh, Bartlett Supply doesn't seem to have the bags in stock, so the second link is to the manufacturer)  The cheap slick poly throwline seems plenty serviceable, probably no need to go to higher-dollar stuff; 100' is plenty of length, probably all you'd want to manage.  A 12 oz. throw weight is also plenty.  I probably couldn't zip anything heaver to the heights I need.  Other useful stuff from the QRPer blog: how to pack a throw bag, and a field antenna's best friend.  You can dig around for "how to throw" yourself videos at youtube, they abound.

Anyway, yeah, get a decent throwline rig.  It's a game-changer, and way more portable than an air-driven PVC spud gun.