[Towertalk] rope

[Ronald KA4INM Youvan]

> There is NOTHING wrong with using nylon rope.


   I'm afraid there is a fundamental problem with using any stretchy
rope as a load line on a tower.  Many tower workers (including a
friend of mine) have died because of this situation.

   With a safe but heavy load, the rope stretches as the load line
is taken into the hoist,* when the top pulley friction is exceeded
the load will jerk up, reducing the stretch on the hoist side of
the top pulley, this action repeats and the load jumps up in steps.
   When the stretch in the load side of the line jumps over the pulley,
reducing the stretch on the hoist side increasing the stretch on
the load side, followed by the load jumping up and settling down,
stretching the load side of the rope even more, the rope on load
side can be stretched with forces that exceed the breaking strength
of the rope and it can break.

* or pulled by truck or tractor

        73 (= Best Regards) de: Ron ka4inm@tampabay.rr.com
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