Rope Length for Supporting Dipole Legs

[N4NYY]

But a bit of geometry will give the answer.  Clearly it has to be more than twice the height of the mast.

Amen. I used the pythagorean formula to figure out how long I had for dipole legs. I can get to 80, but not to 160M. I may have to look at loading for 160M.

[KL3HY]

I hadn't been thinking so much about the ability to lower the antenna.  It does seem pretty obvious that the rope needs to be significantly longer than the mast, as G0GQK so helpfully hinted at.  I was mainly wondering how far should the wire end be kept from the metal mast.

I'm glad the ability to lower the antenna came up--that's honestly something I hadn't even considered.

Thanks,
Mike

[G3RZP]

I would always recommend having enough rope for a 'endless halliard, so if the antenna breaks, you don't have the problem of getting the end of the halliard down. A couple of feet between the support and the antenna is usually adequate, even at 1500 watts. If you have 1500 watts and a relatively small antenna on 500 kHz or 136 kHz, it can be a different matter.