The Sooper Shooter can shoot a 10 lb test line over 50 ft into a tree. Article on Sooper Shooter.
After the 8 or10 lb test fishing line from the Sooper Shooter is retrieved on the ground... then the mason's twine is reeled into the tree. The mason's line will actually support the antenna. Mason's line is good for approx 200 pounds before it breaks.... in fact, I've never had or seen it break.
After much experimenting with 27 ft long wires tossed in trees and their 16
ft counterpoise wires... I came to the conclusion that the TV Twin Lead
antenna is the most bang for the effort. The two band (40M es 20M)
self resonant multi-band doublet allows me to not use a tuner with any of my
rigs. This saves weight and time. This TV Twin Lead is NOT from
RS... It is a foam filled 18 gauge wire size that is coated with
some kind of slick outer coating and the result is that it never gets
tangled up. When I am ready to pull my antenna up... I untie the strap
and throw the whole thing up in the air. It hits the ground ready to
tie to the mason's line. No muss - no fuss - no tangles.
It weighs about a pound and straps on the outside of my day pack or back
pack.
Schematic drawing of TV Twin lead doublet. The elements are self resonant... and is why it works so well - no tuner needed. The feed line is about 32 feet long. I have a 25 ft extension cable incase I get lucky and shoot up high into the trees with the Sooper Shooter and need the extra length to get back to the rig. There have been times when this antenna has been laying on foliage near the ground and I have made contacts.
Here's my KX-1 with Paddlette PK-1 iambic key and doublet antenna TV twin lead feed line plugged directly into the coax jack via the adaptor. No balun required. It works well every time, even near the ground.
