I second the recommendation on using heavy duty springs--I also had several
feet of wire strung between a building and a Norway maple that moved in the
wind and never had a problem.

"Billy Burpelson" wrote in message
...
N9NEO wrote:
I'm in the middle of putting up a longwire antenna. One end is going
up in a tree in my back yard and the other end is going into one of my
neighbors trees. I think it's going to be about 150' long Should I
use a counter weight at my neighbor's end or try and fashion some sort
of grappling hook out of coat hanger and get it tangled up in the
tree?

Neither. The "grappling hook" is waaay too marginal to depend on and even
an expensive marine block ('pulley') will eventually stop operating
without maintenance, to say nothing of somebody getting beaned by the
weights.

I would recommend a screen door spring at each place you fasten to a tree.
Go to a hardware store and find the biggest, beefiest screen door springs
that you can and then give them several coats of paint for rust
prevention.

I've been using this method for a 140 foot dipole (made from 14 gauge
insulated wire) attached to a pine tree at one end and a Norway maple at
the other end; its been up continuously since 1996.

tree - screw eye (or hook) - rope - spring - rope - end insulator -
antenna wire

Good luck!