I'm not sure if this is the right way Pete, but my "corner insulator" on one
of my 160m inverted L's is a 1/2" x 90* grey electrical type of PVC elbow
that I bent using a heat gun. You could also buy them premade at home depot
or whatever.
I threw a rope over a Maple tree and tied and taped the elbow to the rope
(center of the radius), ran my 127' of wire through the elbow and then
raised it up in the air.
For a little better access, I could've put the rope through a pulley, but
ropes tend to last longer if just going over branches around here....or so
it seems. Ropes and wires through (cheap) pulleys tend to break them.
I don't know if I have ever seen this method used anywhere else, but I
sometimes use this on longer wires, like the 160m L. I've never had a wire
break @ the PVC elbow yet. Course, I do still have ropes break from time to
time. Mother Nature is a fierce opponent.
GL
Mike VE9AA
- -
I'm in the process of putting my inverted L back up, and have a construction
question - how do you position and attach the corner insulator? My support
for the vertical section is an old maple, plenty tall but only really
reachable with a pull-up rope by firing a tennis-ball gun over it. The
first time I put this up, I used a pulley with a deep insulated sleeve and
passed the inverted L wire through the pulley. Neat, it seemed - the corner
was automatically positioned to keep the vertical portion the right length.
Unfortunately, over a year or so, the antenna wire flexing over the pulley
caused it to break, so this time around I'd like to use a rope through the
pulley and an insulator at the corner. Question is how best to do it, to
minimize strain on the antenna wire, making it more durable.
--
73, Pete N4ZR
Mike, Coreen & Corey
Keswick Ridge, NB
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