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Re: [TowerTalk] Tougher antenna rope

To: "TowerTalk" <TowerTalk@contesting.com>, "N4ZR" <n4zr@comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Tougher antenna rope
From: "Bob Shohet, KQ2M" <kq2m@kq2m.com>
Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2019 15:58:49 -0500
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
Hi Pete,

I experience the same issues here.  One of the things that I do is for higher 
stress ropes through trees, I switch from 3/16” to 1/4”.  3/16” abrades 
relatively because only a portion of that diameter needs to abrade before the 
forces on the rope in a wind will tear it apart.  The 1/4” lasts exponentially 
longer however since there is effectively 1/3 – 1/2 as much cordage that does 
not abrade right away so it can stand up the the forces for much longer.  And 
where I have used 5/16”, the rope stays up forever.

The cost is geometrically higher from 3/16” < 1/4” < 5/16” but then consider 
the cost of replacing the rope in the future (inflation needs to be taken into 
account) plus the time and effort needed to reinstall the ropes in the tree.  
The 1/4” is well worth it.

What you can also do is what I do now, sling a rope into the tree and attach a 
locking carabiner to one end of the rope and attach a second rope to the other 
end of the carabiner.  Then, through the carabiner, run another rope – hold one 
end on the ground and attach the other end to the antenna wire.

Now you will have rope #1 through the tree and the other attached to the 
carabiner with rope #2 attached to the other end of the carabiner.  Rope #3 
goes through the carabiner – holding one end in your hand and the other 
attached to the antenna.

Now carefully pull up rope #1 through the tree until you have the carabiner at 
the desired height and tie off rope #1 and rope #2 to two different places.  
The pull rope is not in place permanently.

Next, pull rope #3 through the carabiner until your antenna is at the desired 
height. and tie of BOTH ends of rope #3 in two different places.

I have skipped a few interim steps for the sake of brevity – but you will 
easily figure them out.

The end result is that you have a low stress rope and carabiner near the top of 
the tree at the height you want.  AND, you now have a low stress pull rope for 
your antenna that goes through the carabiner.

If rope #1 ever gets stuck in the tree there is no problem raising or lowering 
the antenna through the carabiner!  And it is very easy to adjust the tension 
from the ground.

I now put up all wire antenna ends using this method.  Although it has cost a 
few more bucks (a 6 pack of quality locking carabiners cost ~$40) this way, the 
incredible amount of time and effort saved not fighting with trees and less 
rope abraded, has been repaid many, many fold.  This is especially important in 
miserable weather when I can raise, lower and replace a line in about 5 
minutes, vs. what used to take up to an hour.

73


Bob  KQ2M


From: N4ZR 
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2019 3:26 PM
To: TowerTalk 
Subject: [TowerTalk] Tougher antenna rope

I have a small variety of wire HF antennas that I've placed high in my 
trees with a tennis ball gun.  All great except that the lifetime of the 
rope I've been using (3/16" polypropylene braid with an unbraided core) 
seems quite short, probably because of chafing against moving branches 
near the tops of trees.

Does anyone have suggestions for an alternative, hopefully an economic one?

-- 

73, Pete N4ZR
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at <http://reversebeacon.net>, now
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