[TowerTalk] Weight on ends of a OCF diploe

[Bryan Swadener]

Until I erected my tower, I used a 75' Cedar tree to support my wire antennas -- the apex of my 80m four wire cage inverted vee, and one end of my 40m dipole. I used a counterweight + Nylon/SS pulley. I used 1/4" DOUBLE BRAIDED Nylon rope. While Nylon ordinarily has a lot of stretch, the double-braided construction improves that quite a bit. I've been using it for nearly five decades with ZERO failures. The pulley is 3" diameter. Along with the Nylon/SS construction, it rolls easily. The larger the diameter, the easier a pulley rolls.
The advantage of using a counterweight is, since the counterweight is near the ground, it's easy to adjust the tension. Also, since the rope reaches the ground, raising/lowering the antenna is a non-issue. You climb the tree only once.
Bryan WA7PRC