Topband: NA activity + Inv-L corner insulator

[Guy Olinger K2AV]

In the pulley snag conundrum, I found that the small marine grade stainless
steel, ball bearing pulleys would handle the black sheathed 3/16 in
parachute cord style rope and never a snag. They also pull very easy as the
bearing never freezes up from exposure to merely (vs. salt) water.

I also have a pair of insulators at the bend, one to the vertical wire,
another to the horizontal wire with a loop of "Flexweave" wire from the
horizontal to the vertical. That way in the wind there is no way for the
forces to be flexing a hard connection from the vertical to the horizontal.
After 2 or 3 (or was it 7 or 8) failures at this point with wires on the
ground it finally dawned on me that the wind constantly varied the angle
between the two wires, and fatigue at the joint was inevitable and
frequent.

YMMV but I'll never again have a "hard joint" at that point. I started this
in 2010, and have gone 11 years without the L coming down for that (one
dumb rope thing, though).

73, and long in the future may your heirs have to figure out how to get it
down out of the trees.

Guy K2AV

On Sat, Sep 25, 2021 at 4:23 PM <W3HKK at roadrunner.com> wrote:

> . Here in Ohio we are still having moderate QRN especially in the
> evenings. When I get on at our SR, the VK/ZL boys are often coming
> through fairly well with much less QRN.
>
> My INV-L has a ceramic insulator at the apex, which is held in place
> by 3/16" black synthetic rope of some kind ( Home Depot source) thrown
> over my 52 ft tall black walnut tree tied off to another tree. I dont
> use pullies since so often the rope slips off the roller and into the
> crack between the roller and the U-bracket. So I just tied a rope to
> the other side of the insulator and hoist.
>
>
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