Topband: Dacron & varmits

[Bob Matthews]

I was plagued by vermin as well as the elements. Living next to a state park has its problems. I was introduced to Mule Tape by a fellow PVRC member and am in the process of replacing all my ropes with Mule Tape. I ordered a 1000 ft spool of 3/4 inch with a load factor of 2500 lbs. this stuff is really tough. The vermin don’t mess with it.

 The only drawback is that it only came in white. I remedied this by hitting it with a light dusting of flat black spray paint before installing. This stops the look of toilet papered trees. I’d recommend Mule Tape as an install it and forget about it. Great stuff. 

Bob KT3RR 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Feb 18, 2020, at 03:01, Gary Smith <Gary at ka1j.com> wrote:
> 
> Coupla things. I need new Dacron, some I 
> have is from the 80's & finally at its 
> end. I bought some replacement but it's 
> not what I had. What I had was greenish 
> and solid braid, tough and incredibly 
> resistant to nature.
> 
> What my new "Dacron" is, is a white center 
> conductor I assume is Dacron, with a black 
> braided sleeve/outer-layer which slides 
> over the center conductor. It's OK but 
> difficult to work with and certainly not 
> what I am going to keep using. I contacted 
> one source who said he sells pure Dacron 
> rope but never buying from him before, 
> asked for a photo of an end piece so I 
> could see if it's what I'm looking for. He 
> never sent it to me so I'm still looking. 
> 
> For the moment I need 500', soon, double 
> that. If there's a known source for the 
> good stuff in the states, please let me 
> know.
> 
> Now the Rodents, vermin, beasts; I don't 
> know what it was, but I've been plagued 
> with wildly varying SWR/antenna problems 
> often getting a SWR of 9 and then later 
> the normal SWR of 1.2. I'd get varying SWR 
> that was fine till say 30W and then the 
> LP-100A would jump to 9. I'd go out, check 
> things and find nothing wrong. It's been 
> driving me nuts. Intermittents suck. I 
> finally found the little miseries had been 
> chewing on the ferrite choke on the 
> control wires to the remote band-switch. 
> Amazing they only went for the 90 degree 
> bends, I'm sure they'll go for the 
> straight length again (did that once 6-7 
> years back). I have a Green Heron remote 
> with wireless transmitter ready to go out, 
> I'll do that in better weather.
> 
> Removed the rodent's teething ring & 
> reattached the wires to the remote box and 
> all's well, just some touch-up stuff to do 
> and prepare to put up an 80 sloper. The 
> tree above the radial plate is rotted, it 
> holds the current 80 vertical wire and 
> looks to come down soon, probably on the 
> plate or remote band-switch. But other 
> than that, I'm back on the air. Sure 
> delayed me getting into the contest on 
> Friday, but still knocked out 62 Q's & 37 
> countries on 160. Couldn't do much on 
> Saturday but t'was still fun.
> 
> Thanks for any thoughts on the Dacron.
> 
> 73,
> 
> Gary
> KA1J
> _________________
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