I have used a small tyvec (plastic impregnated paper) parafoil kite as a radio platform. In doing so, it became obvious that it is a great locating device.

I hang a very small walkie-talkie on the kite. This radio is capable of receiving on one ham band and transmitting the received signal on another ham band (called cross-band operation). Used this way, it greatly extends my ground WT range.

We left on up one night with a small strobelight on it (Can't remember which brand) and it was remarkable how far it was observed.

During daylight we had a long tail of "logging tape" 1" wide marking tape. Better would be mylar for radar, but we were not interested in that.

I was amaze at how little weight the kite would lift. The walkie and strobe were about the limit. Kite is about 3' wingspan.

Also tried to use an antenna wire as the kite string, but the copper was too heavy for the kite.

This was done in conjunction with a search and rescue training exercise and was quite useful as a visual marker in the woods where everyplace begins to look like eveyplace else.

For line I used 100 lb kevlar fishing line. All stuff we just happened to have around.

Folded with line the kite fits in a cylinderical pouch about 2" diam x 3" long. did not weigh it , but of course very light weight.

for what its worth......