[TowerTalk] Dipole Center Insulator

[Stan Labinsky Jr.]

I can offer you a quick and dirty which we use at field day on hanging 
cables, just "whip it".

Google "whipping rope" and you'll see a simple technique of wrapping light 
cord around twisted rope to keep it from fraying in use.

Use that same technique but do not cut off the free end which pulls the 
tension on the wraps.  Use that tail, the cord bing about one quarter of the 
cable's diameter, as your supporting lead.

Believe it or not, a dozen or so turns of snug wrapping will hold the co-ax 
like a Chinese finger trap.  Firmly but not crushing, just what the Kellems 
grip offers, but for a whole lot less in cost.  Just need to use good UV 
immune cord for the job.

The folks at the ARRL were impressed enough to put it in a Hint & Kinks 
about a year or so ago.  You can find it there.

I may still have a pdf of the article as it appeared there if anyone's 
interested.

Stan



-----Original Message----- 
From: Steve Maki
Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2015 7:25 PM
To: towertalk
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Dipole Center Insulator

IMO, strain-relief is the Main Attraction for rolling your own
*connector-less* center insulator. Especially for the scenario where the
feedpoint is suspended half way between the end supports.

If the feedpoint is located on a middle support, the commercial
connectorized insulators are fine.

-Steve K8LX

On 2/9/2015 9:52 PM, Gary Johnson wrote:

> What are you experts using for strain relief on the coax? I can’t see
> the PL-259 taking all the tension of a very long length of RG-8 (plus
> a nice fat K9YC choke). I always think of Kellem grips in situations
> like this but I’ve never seen them mentioned in ham applications.


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