The Imuto battery pack it uses weighs in at about a pound, making it the heaviest component of the antenna-borne rig. I've always enjoyed using butcher twine to support the rig, but it looked—and felt—very much like butchers twine was not going to support Powered TouCans, (aka Wireless TouCans.) Butchers twine has always had a bit of an issue getting a bit jammed up on the sap of various trees. This has led to be being able to feel when the twine is about to break. With the extra weight of the battery pack, I've been having this feeling a lot more often. I needed a different way to suspend the radio, but didn't want to resort to rope if I could avoid it.
Enter tarred twine. I'd never heard of this stuff before it on Amazon, but wow! It's tensile strenght is higher, it can be about the same weight, and it doesn't hang up on tree limbs as much. The tar reduces the friction of the string overall. This led to no limb jams over the last weekend during all three POTAs across New Mexico! The tar makes the twine weigh a bit more per foot which gives it more of a rope feel in terms of sturdiness, but without the awkward width of a rope. The rig didn't fall once, nor did it once feel like the twine was going to break!
Here's evidence of the twine in action from the Lincoln National Forest POTA (I was on Monjeau Peak.)
One more twine trick before I go. I also learned over the last two weekends, that one can insert a rock into the end of the twine tube to add weight to roll of twine making it heft a bit farther when launched by an atlatl.
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| Shown here with lava rock that was returned to Valley of Fires, NM |
This little trick also simplifies the design of the atlatl if you happen to be camping. It turns out that folding up a segmented tent pole with the exception of the final segment, creates a very handy two segment long atlatl! The picture below shows the length of two connected segments of th test pole. Want a longer throw? You can simply add more segments. The tent pole also has a bit more spring to it than a typical limb which adds yet a little more loft ot the twine spool. But why does the rock matter you ask? In addition to adding weight, it prevents the tent pole from emerging from the other side of the twine tube making for a more controlled lauch with less thought and less practice.
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| Sleeping pad as well as three year-old and five year-old's booted feet included for scale |
Bank line is indeed good stuff. And improvising an atlatl, likewise. Sometimes, though, it's worth looking at how other people are solving a problem. Arborists use throw lines and throw weights to put lines in trees, sometimes up quite high. Lots of hams doing POTA activations use arborists throw lines and throw weights to get lines into trees so they can raise antennas.
ReplyDeleteThrow lines are pretty cheap, and they are quite strong. Throw weights, likewise inexpensive.
I guess it's a balance between teaching the kids how to improvise solutions, and showing them useful tools that they can replicate if need be. There's a reason arborists don't use atlatls, after all.
Keep up the good work! I'm enjoying following Project Toucans!
Thanks! I'd heard about arborist throw lines, but the kids and I had a few issues using twine with throw weights where the weight wrapped itself around a branch becoming stuck in the tree. That's what led us to throw the spool instead of a weight since it won't wrap around, it simply unrolls to the ground.
ReplyDeleteI had assumed arborist lines would have the same issue, but maybe the thickness of the rope or the heaviness of the weight makes the issue less likely? One of the reviews I read on Amazon was by an amateur radio operator who mentioned that the line had never stuck in the tree for them. That sounds good. The only other issue I can anticipate is that it might consume a bit more space than what we our sppole of twine, but that might be worth it for the ease of use. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to take a second look and learn more.