I tested a launcher destined for Sweden today, from the last batch. At 40 psi the ball went so high I just about didn’t get it back. Most of my Field Day launching this year was under 50 psi, and that was with a CSV17!
NOTE FOR HOMEBREWERS and KIT BUILDERS – the Harbor Freight (newly manufactured old style) trigger valves are not doing very well. Most are marginal flow-wise. We have a few old type valves in inventory but will have to do something different soon. We shipped some of the newer (bad) HF valves before this was discovered, so make sure and test your launcher BEFORE CEMENTING THE TRIGGER JOINTS so it will be easy to swap out bad triggers.
We are back from Field Day and working on the July batch of Antenna Launchers. I hope everyone had a good Field Day and put plenty of antennas up high!
One thing we tried this year was multiple pulleys on the beam lifting line, giving a 3:1 advantage. This worked very well, and we lofted a large triband beam high into the space between the trees. We also put up a number of wire antennas into the treetops, ranging from 70 to a bit over 100 feet.
The next batch of launchers will be made in August.
We’re off to Field Day, which for us is also camping in the mountains for a few days. This means a brief interruption in email responses from us. When we return we will start another batch of launchers. Order cutoff date for this next batch is June 30th.