Back in the 1970s when I lived on the South Coast, a local to me - G3RCE - used to regularly put up a Half Wave vertical on 160m suspended by a Hydrogen-filled Weather balloon.
However, unlike a Kite which needs decent wind to stay aloft, with a Balloon you want NO wind ! As suggested, he found it worked much better than a Quarter wave vertical, not just due to earth losses, but I guess the radiating part was much higher. He used aluminium wire, and running about 600 watts output. The vertical was tethered about 5 feet off the ground, with a horizontal wire about 50ft long running to the upstairs window of his shack, where he had a parallel-tuned ATU with a link winding to the Tx. Incidentally, although in recent years I have used Dipoles, at several QTHs over the years I have used an end-fed half wave on 160m, with no issues - this was normally where the shack was on the third floor, so I didn't have to bring the feed-point down towards ground. Roger G3YRO _________________ Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
