I live in Western Washington, and we have very tall (130ft+) Douglas fir everywhere. I have a few on my property and I’m coming up with a plan to hang a node relatively high up.

I have two options to do this safely. I can either use an arborist sling to shoot a rope maybe 60ft or so up, and then pull a heavier rope with the node up. Or, I could drop some fishing line and a weight from my drone and do the same thing, except possibly even higher up.

Has anyone done something like this? Am I overthinking this, or missing something?

  • Onno (VK6FLAB)@lemmy.radio
    1·
    11 days ago

    This is exactly how we put up amateur radio antennas.

    Some things to consider:

    • how is it powered
    • how do you get it down
    • how do you stop it from killing someone on the ground when it eventually comes down
    • how will foliage growth affect the range
    • squirrels and birds will likely take an interest
    • waterproofing
    • CorrectAlias@piefed.blahaj.zoneOPEnglish
      4·
      10 days ago

      Thanks. To answer this:

      • 3 small solar panels, using this case.
      • I plan on leaving the rope or fishing line attached so I can bring it back down if needed
      • Luckily it’s in a forest on my property, and the branch it would be on is more likely to kill someone, but it’s good to consider either way
      • It’ll definitely have an affect, although I’m not sure how much. Maybe I can choose a part of the branch with little foliage?
      • They definitely will
      • I plan on resin coating the case and using silicone around the panels. We do get a ton of rain here, but hopefully it wouldn’t matter too much if it died from rain since it’ll be relatively cheap
    • hereiamagain@sh.itjust.works
      1·
      8 days ago

      Stinking squirrels LOVED my end fed, no matter how I tied it over the branch, they’d find a way to bring it down inside of a year. I used a big plastic clothesline pulley once, because the tree moved in the wind, and they chewed through the pulley 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️