After my wife's trip with the P4P to the Philippines, I thought up some practical uses for the drone as a workhorse.

I ordered a FliFli Airdrop system on Amazon last week and it arrived Sunday (amazing, USPS delivering packages on Sunday). So I tested the Airdrop and its remote then mounted it to my P4P. Did a couple of bottle drop tests just to see if it was reliable and then set up my antenna raising project.

I have 1500' of black, flat nylon lacing cord on a spool. It's normally used for lacing wiring harnesses back in the 1940s-60s in electronics like early computers. It is somewhat sticky, being coated with wax. But it is light and strong.

The stickiness precludes being able to use the metal rod in the Airdop as a pulley, so I tied a 50' length of cord to an old WD-40 can with a rock attached to the bottom with duct tape to get the weight about right. The end of the cord is tied in a loop and attached to the Airdrop. The WD-40 can end of the cord is attached to a long piece of cord going back to a spool mounted on a steel rod so it can unwind freely.

I launched the drone and slowly brought it straight up, alongside the tree, with the spool unwinding as the drone goes up. Once I got up a little above the top of the tree, I aimed the camera to the horizon to get a better idea of relationship to the tree height. Then I went up another 50' to bring the weighted WD-40 can up over the treetop and flew a few feet north until the can was dangling over the bow I wanted to hang the antenna upon. Once the can made it down through the opening in the foliage, I reduced altitude until the can was about halfway down the heigh of the tree. Satisfied with the position, I pressed the release button on the Airdrop and let the can fall all the way to the ground. I then landed the drone and proceeded to tie a heavy nylon pull rope to the cord that I put over the bow, and pulled the cord until the heavy pull rope came over the bow. I thend tied my antenna wire to the other end of the pull rope and then pulled until the antenna was all the way up to the 90' height.

To finish off, I pounded a 5' long metal rod into the ground and soldered (with a MAPP gas torch) the RG-11 coax shield to the metal rod and the center conductor to the dangling end of the antenna element. Today I added about 5-6 ground radials to the ground side. The new antenna works amazingly well compared to my existing 65' horizontal longwire, that is only 18' off the ground at the far end due to the limitations of how high I could throw a weight attached to a string over a branch (I remember that taking all afternoon).

So in five minutes, I was able to erect a 90' high vertical longwire antenna, with the help of my drone. I can hear stations that are not even audible on the old antenna now.

When I was very young and foolish, & had all sorts of brilliant ideas.

I connected a radio antenna to a wire and hooked it up to our near rail road tracks...


Yes,
I could hear a train coming.

Ah,  but that “ain’t” all... grin


RedHotPoker

Did you think to video this ?

Nearly beats my p4p spinning my 10m high anemometer to clear the cobwebs ;) sadly it wasnt a cobweb issue in the end but dodgy bearings, had to pull it all down to replace the cartridge, not it spins as smooth as a baby's butt even at 1mph.

I recorded video on the exploratory mission, but forgot to do so during the actual install. It would have been a great demonstration video, as it went so smoothly it looked well-rehearsed. Five minutes was all it took and I had the pull rope in place over the branch. Took me longer to tie on the wire and pull all that cord up there than it did to fly the mission!

Railroad tracks might make an interesting counterpoise, or maybe useful VLF antenna.

Yeah, the rotor wash is good for clearing lots of debris from hard to get at places. I think I mention a while back that I cleared the leaves off my shed roof by hovering over it.

On a hot day, it makes a nice cooler when one stands under the AC while hovering 15-20' overhead.

Mark Weiss Posted at 2018-9-4 11:41
I recorded video on the exploratory mission, but forgot to do so during the actual install. It would have been a great demonstration video, as it went so smoothly it looked well-rehearsed. Five minutes was all it took and I had the pull rope in place over the branch. Took me longer to tie on the wire and pull all that cord up there than it did to fly the mission!

Railroad tracks might make an interesting counterpoise, or maybe useful VLF antenna.

Yeah i do that for the missus on a hot day down the beach once flight is over i use the spare batteries and hover above her as a fan she loves it

Hellsgate Posted at 2018-9-4 12:06
Yeah i do that for the missus on a hot day down the beach once flight is over i use the spare batteries and hover above her as a fan she loves it

Phantoms do make a great outdoor fan!

I'm always looking for more ways to put our investment to good use.

Mark Weiss Posted at 2018-9-4 17:20
Phantoms do make a great outdoor fan!

I'm always looking for more ways to put our investment to good use.

I'm always looking for more ways to put our investment to good us

Sell and do more work lol

Bashy Posted at 2018-9-4 19:42
I'm always looking for more ways to put our investment to good us

Sell and do more work lol

Actually, I'm thinking about selling before the warranty runs out and then buying the Phantom 5 when it comes out. Although, this has been such a trouble-free bird (compared to the horror stories I read) that I'm a little reluctant to trade up to a newer model and possible problems that might bring.