I would like to lift a 5/8 wave wire vertical for 160m, using a drone, over my lovely saltwater swamp. The thing must be powered from the ground, capable of being left aloft for a couple of hours while I work DX, and capable of hovering in position with windspeeds of up to 20 kph. IT should also be resistant to RFI from a strong RF (KW) field. Has anyone tried this yet?
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You ask “has anyone tried this”. I'm just back from Pacificon 2015 where Glenn Elmore, N6GN, gave a talk on exactly this topic.
He found that using a helium balloon is not practical for lifting antennas on all but the very calmest of days, since the wind will blow it away from vertical, and as well the helium will leak away quickly enough to make keeping it aloft expensive (though there was some discussion of better balloons).
The problem with actively supporting the antenna using a quadcopter (or dirigible balloon) is battery life — “a couple of hours” is pushing the limits of what is possible with a drone that is free flying and not also supporting an antenna. (The bigger the battery, the more power spent supporting the weight of that battery.)
N6GN's latest work is on powering the quadcopter using RF energy sent up the feed line, on a different band than is being used for communications. I encourage you to visit his site and read about his work, since he's working on exactly what you're looking for.
Kevin Reid AG6YO
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Ditch the drone idea, that's going to be way too expensive. You're better off getting a bunch of PVC pipe, sticking it in the mud, and guying it every 25 feet.
Daniel
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