Re: LF: toothbrushes

[Dmitri <ra3yo@mail.ru>]

Hi Lf,

MarkusVester@aol.com wrote:
> Hi Laurence and LF,
>  
>  I have used ~ 40 cm helium balloons a couple of times, to get on air with
> 60 to 100 m of thin 0.4 mm copper wire. The balloon was closed off by a small
> upside-down plastic bottle (ex body lotion, or the like), with a hole in
> the base coverd by a piece of tesa tape as a filling valve. The wire end
> was simply wrapped around the neck of this bottle, with no extra length of
> nylon filament or insulators. Ran up to abt. 3 Amps RF into it without any
> problems. "Ground-based" experience with my 200 pF topload showed that corona
> near the wire ends can be reduced further by paralleling two (or more) thin
> wires for the last couple of meters, with a U-turn at the end and two 5 cm
> lightweight spacers.
>  
>  Actually I was never very much worried about the balloon coming off the
> wire, but more concerned about not letting it off near the bottom end, with
> the risk of a string of copper shorting some high voltage powerline, possibly
> causing an arc after meltdown.

New - old idea: blow up radio mast, 45 meters- it's real.

Dmitri