John W0UN wrote:
>4) Dacron. The right choice. Good UV resistence. Not too much
>stretch. Get a braided one and it won't unwind under load. I do
>trust my life to it. Good brand is Sampson "stable braid" although
>I think I heard recently they have been bought out. Look in the yellow
>pages under rope.
>
>Dacron takes knots well, is easy to untie, and almost never gets
>tangled. I have used lots of ropes and I wouldn't use anything else
>but a braided Dacron rope. Buy from a rope supplier and not
>from a local hardware store.
Yep, once you start using a good braided line, you never reach
for a twisted rope again. Braided rope is well behaved, twisted
rope has a way of making the simplist jobs agravating.
Braided IS a little harder to hold on to, but for heavy loads
one should be using some sort of mechanical lifting device
(capstan winch, tractor, jeep, etc.) anyway.
For serious tower work the best I know of is Yale Double Esterlon.
Braided construction, extremely flexible, almost no stretch, light,
1/2" variety has rated tensile strength of 10,000 lbs, available
direct from Yale Cordage in Portsmouth, ME for about .45/ft in
1200' lengths. You CAN trust your life to this stuff.
Another good one is 1/2" Safety Blue (arborist rope) from New England
Ropes in New Bedford, MA. About 7500 lbs tensile strength, but
almost the same price as the Yale and a little heavier.
--
Steve Maki K8LX
steve@oakcom.com
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