Manage Your Guys

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     No, I don't mean manage your guys as in coach your baseball team. I mean manage your guys as in keep your antenna mast supports organized.

     A few months ago I wrote about my "Mast From Junk" which I made primarily from an extending pole that was bound for the trash.  I have used the mast several times now - on Winter Field Day 2017 (You can check out myshort YouTube video to see some shots of it in action) and on a couple of other portable operations.  The last time I used it I had to pack up in a hurry because I started to get rained on.  I tried to be organized about it, but I admit to not being as careful as I should.

     Since I am planning on using this mast during my WWFF Activation of Darien Lakes State Park next week, I pulled it out of the corner of the garage.  After an hour of working, my guy ropes still looked like this:

     Why am I sharing my horrible mess that I brought on myself?  Because this is how we learn!  Sometimes in ham radio we feel like we should know everything just because we passed a test.  The truth is, whether you learned something by reading, or by other people telling you, sometimes it just doesn't sink in until you experience it yourself.  This is the case even if it is something simple like organization, or something more challenging, like graphing complex impedance.  I've read about methods for neatly wrapping rope and cable, I've seen the little plastic kite winders that some people use, I've even seen ways to support masts without guy ropes at all, but I just didn't get around to any of these!  Now I'm paying for it, but I learned a valuable lesson first hand - take the time to neatly pack your gear!

     So, pardon me while I dust off my pride, and go back to my mess of rope in the garage.  For now I'm going to re-wrap this with the "over-under" method that someone in one of the ham radio Face Book groups recommended (Google it, you should be able to find a tutorial.)  While I do that, I'll be brainstorming some type of device to wrap my rope around - simply buying something isn't my style, so I'll let everyone know what I come up with using the scraps of stuff I have in my garage...

Bye for now!

P.S.  Those things on the end of my guy ropes are actually clothesline tensioners.  They work great for quick adjustments and keeping guys tight in portable setups! 

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