[TowerTalk] Quickly releasable knot

[Tower (K8RI)]

One way is to use a half bow, just as in when kids are first learning to tie
their shoes.  Wrap the rope/line around the boom, and tie it tight with the
end of the "bow" either hanging out far enough to reach, or with a piece of
nylon rope attached.

When finished, just pull on the line.

The only problem I have seen is catching the "untying" line on the way up,
or while it is still needed.  That can leave you hanging onto a "tiger by
the tail".

They work quite well.  It could be "saftied" by simply putting a second line
through the "bow" preventing it from accidentally being pulled.


Roger Halstead (K8RI, EN73 & ARRL Life Member)
N833R, World's Oldest Debonair (S# CD-2)
www.rogerhalstead.com

> This past weekend I was on a ground crew putting up two large 40m
> yagis.  Because the tag lines needed to be reachable from the tower, they
> were attached only maybe 18 inches from the center of the boom, which made
> it very hard to apply enough force on the tag lines to control the antenna
> (lever arm too short).
>
> I seem to recall reading, at one time, about a special type of knot
> designed for remote untying.  In a nutshell, it holds tight as long as the
> "untying" force is applied through the loop formed by the knot, but a good
> tug on a "pigtail" sticking out of the knot itself will cause the knot to
> untie.  It occurred to me that such a knot could have been used to attach
> the tag lines some distance from the center of the boom, with the pigtail
> taped to the boom and long enough to reach to the center, so that the tag
> lines could be released when no longer needed.
>
> Am I making this up, or does someone know the details or, perhaps, a web
> site source?
>
> 73, Pete N4ZR
> Check out the World HF Contest Station Database
> Updated 9 Jan 04
> www.pvrc.org/wcsd/wcsdsearch.htm
>
>
>
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