On 8/30/2010 7:33 AM, Tim Shoppa wrote:

Roy -
Let me tell you, I could never be good enough with a slingshot to
get a line over a 120 foot tree! But the tennis ball cannon has
served quite nicely for sending a line over any tree I could find. We
could probably agree to disagree on this - you're good with the
slingshot, and I'm an ace with the cannon.

I find that even in non-conifer trees that it's likely for a 1/4" or
3/16" rope to get stuck after a year or more. If there's a single
crotch with a tight angle in it (e.g. 90 degrees) as opposed to a
number of turns of smaller angles it seems more likely to get stuck. I
don't see how twine could hold up for nearly that long. My
installations are Dacron/polyester rope with pulleys and a
counterweight; the counterweight is IMHO absolutely essential to
having the antenna survive a thunderstorm.

There are also fast-growing pine trees in my neighborhood but they
are "new" and not the giant old-growth trees. In the February
snowstorms (4 feet of snow! Snowpocalypse!) a *lot* of the medium
height pines came down under the weight of the 4 foot snowfall. Non-
evergreen trees also came down but not nearly at the rate that the
conifers did.

Tim N3QE

I wasn't intending to argue about the best method to put a line over a
tree -- I backpack my portable station as well as camping equipment on
Field Day, which is why my choice of a slingshot and twine. My best
height with it is about 100 feet, but I usually choose my FD sites for
sloping terrain to the east so I don't need much height. My question is
only about the problem of a line getting stuck after a short while. I've
assumed that conifers are more of a problem because of the sticky pitch
and relatively soft wood. What are the experiences others have had with
moderately sized line?

Roy Lewallen, W7EL