Dear SBARC Members:

I am writing to the general membership today to ask for a favor.

As you know, the 28-29th of June is Field Day. KG6JMJ and I are running the HF Phone Station. We had this bright idea of getting a car dealership to lend us their blimp for Field Day operations. It appears that we have been successful and expect to have a 17 foot blimp flying above the Phone Station. What could be more exciting?

We need two things and we thought that we would appeal to the membership for help. We need:

1. Ladder Line. 450 ohm 14 gage 1 inch ladder line is preferred. 2. Ideas about what antenna would take the best advantage of the blimp (maximum elevation is 190 feet).

If you have some ladder line you would like to LEND (you will get it back), please let us know. We would like to obtain about 300 feet in total. It can be in many pieces...anywhere from 25 foot sections to 100+ foot runs.

If you have an antenna idea, we'd love to hear it. If you have an antenna you would like to lend and see it fly high above Santa Barbara, we'd like to hear that too!

With the solar conditions poor, we need to concentrate on 40-80 meters. Having the blimp will allow us to get a long wire high in the sky. As a skyhook, we can suspend most any design. Looking through the ARRL Antenna book brings several good choices to mind, including a tilted half rhombic.

So, if you'd like to help us field day operators out, please let us know. Please send email to kg6ena@sbarc.org do not reply to this email as we used the list server.

Thanks for your time.

KG6ENA, KG6JMJ Steve Hammer Ken Mueller