136 KHz with a kite

[André Kesteloot]

Peter Martinez wrote:

> >From Peter Martinez G3PLX Kendal Cumbria.
>
> With the wind at force 6 all day Saturday and Sunday, it looked as if
> the weekend was to be a non-event for the kite, but at 6 pm on
> Sunday the windspeed dropped enough to fly. The wind was
> southwest, which results in the kite wire going up across the
> longwire antenna, so I had to improvise an auxiliary line to make
> sure it did not touch.
> Unlike last time with a south-east wind and the kite line at 70
> degrees to the horizontal, this time it was only at 55 degrees,
> probably because the difference in the land slope downwind. With
> the full 300ft of wire aloft, signal reports were down a bit. I fully
> expected the wind to drop to zero fairly quickly, but over 2 hours I
> worked six stations. One new one was G3KZU in Oxford, after a
> tip-off from G4GVC on the phone, although a bit of a struggle with
> his RST 339 signal. Also worked G3GRO for the first time, and
> repeat contacts with G4GVC, G3KEV, G3XTZ, and G3YXM.
>
> At about 9 oclock, long after sunset, I noticed the SWR was slightly
> high, which was odd. Normally if the kite comes down the SWR
> goes off-scale. I went out to have a look, and saw the nylon line at
> 45 degrees with the antenna wire in a curve below it, the lowest
> point just clear of the barn roof. There was not a breath of wind to be
> felt at ground level, but the kite was completely motionless and
> silent in the sky. Quite an eerie sight in the twilight. It seemed to be
> perfectly stable like that but I decided to bring it down before it got
> too dark.
>
> 73
> Peter G3PLX