I’m thinking about having a tree-climbing friend run an antenna/pi/radio setup into a very tall tree on the property- it’s about 100’ higher at the top than the highest point of the roof. It’ll figure out an easy enclosure and probably just run PoE/cat5 to get power up there and to leave the SDR plugged directly into the Pi to minimize attenuation.
If given the choice, would it be better to mount the antenna “on” the tree itself, meaning parallel to the trunk and very close to the trunk… or perhaps better to have it “hung” from one of the branches?
The trunk option would be a little higher up, but I’m a little concerned that the trunk itself would block reception in that particular direction… a branch mount would be lower, but the angle “blocked” by the trunk would be a lot smaller.
Thoughts? Another question: I assume it makes no difference if the antenna is mounted upright or straight down, as long as its mounted vertically?
Check the number of planes you are seeing with the antenna in the open at a height with relatively easy access–say 10’ in the air. Then put the antenna up against a tree trunk at 10’ And see if there is a drop in performance as a result of the proximity to the trunk.
i would go with a pole attached to the tree so the antenna to clears the top of the tree.
Then run a short length of coax down the pole so the Pi is in the tree (to give it some protection from the elements) you could probably make that an assembly so your friend can just drag it up the tree and attach it.
Even a branch of the main bolt ('scuse the pun) carries thousands of volts and will destroy your Pi, the Ethernet cable and whatever it’s connected to in your house. In the worst case it will start a fire.
