Creative Antenna Experiments Series: A Homemade Antenna Launcher 

Our mission at ClearSkyRF is to provide a low-threshold experimental environment that unleashes new forms of creativity and scientific insight.

Using what’s at hand and making the most of your surroundings is critical to gaining quick insights without the high price tag associated with formal experimentation.

In this series, I share documentation from my past experiments — hopefully to spark ideas and conversations.

I often joke that this antenna stuff is a sport — especially when you need to put a wire high up onto trees.

Here’s an antenna launcher I made to get wire antennas into trees. It’s as sketchy as it looks, but highly predictable as it follows the laws of ballistics. Software controls the mixture of butane (Bosch injector) and air (air mattress pump), and shoots a soda bottle containing exactly 200ml of water. I could hit a tree branch 100ft up without fail.

Here’s a video of how it works in practice: