[TowerTalk] Taking up slack in wire antennas

[BRENT BAUM]

If you have rope at the ends of the wires you can get out your old Scout hand book and look up how to tie a taut line hitch out at the ends of the rope. Then as the tower is lowered you, or a couple of assistants, can run up the slack with the hitches, just like tightening tent ropes.
 
Sometimes old fashioned simple technology works the best.
 
Good luck
 
73 K7MEI, Brent
 
Scoutmaster, Silver Beaver, etc. etc.> Date: Fri, 18 May 2007 10:02:17 -0400> From: n3ox at n3ox.net> To: towertalk at contesting.com> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Taking up slack in wire antennas> > > For shorter antennas, I've used weights hanging from the ends of the> > support ropes, and also screen door springs, but I have to take up> > too much slack in the 160m antenna for these solutions to work. I> > need something like a venetian blind shade, that reels in the support> > rope and keeps it under constant tension. Anybody know if anything> > like that is available?> > I've thought about this a bit for guy ropes for my 60 foot telescoping> vertical... they always seem to get tangled if it's even a little> windy when I take it down:> > I haven't tried it yet, but I was thinking a possible solution would> be a spool with a large diameter driven by smaller spool with a heavy> weight pulling on a cord. If you made the spool diameter ratio 10:1,> for example, you could reel in 60 feet of wire with a 6 foot drop of> the weight.> > You'd have to use some stupidly heavy weights to keep reasonable> tension to support a 160m inverted vee with this method, though. I was> considering just using these things to reel in the ropes and using> something else to provide tension while the antenna is up. My> application is to reel in some 1/16" light cord, not keep tension on a> dipole.> > - - - - - - -> > I also found this:> > http://www.firstchoicemarine.com/p-463-anchor-rein-anchor-lift-anchor-line-spool-36-retractable.aspx> > for a more turn-key solution, but maybe they aren't long enough?> > > 73,> Dan> _______________________________________________> > > > _______________________________________________> TowerTalk mailing list> TowerTalk at contesting.com> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk