R 0 P E

UNLESS  YOU  ARE AN EXPERT ON DIFFERENT TYPES OF ROPE

YOU SHOULD PLAY IT SAFE AND

ONLY BUY ROPE FROM A REPUTABLE HAM RADIO DEALER

ROPE IS ROPE, RIGHT ?

At least that's what poor Joe Ham (the guy in the picture above) thought when he bought his cheap rope on sale at the local "do-it-yourself" hardware shop.  

He got a great bargain; even bragged about it on the air.

Now Joe's new antenna

is scattered all over the back yard.  

He used cheap rope!

Sorry Joe!

Should have informed yourself about rope

BEFORE YOU BOUGHT IT.

You never appreciate the value of "GOOD ROPE" until you lose an antenna from using cheap rope!  Unfortunately most people reading this will ignor the warning and find out the hard way (like I did).   :-(

New hams starting from fresh in our hobby are faced with a lot of expenses.  The list of things they need is long. Although many items themselves are normally cheap, when you have to buy all of this stuff at once, it quickly adds up to several hunderd dollars.

Let's face it; when we are starting out in the hobby, we know we will need a transceiver and we know we will need an antenna, and we allocate a certain amount of money for these main things.  Unfortunately most people fail to realize how much money the little things will cost.

Little things:

• A pole or mast to place the antenna
• Rope to guy the mast and support the ends of the wire antennas
• A microphone
• Headphones
• A code key
• Coax
• Coax jumpers (you will need several)
• A watt meter or at least an SWR bridge
• QSL Cards

Add all of this together and we come to several hundred dollars.

At this point most people begin looking for ways to save money.

ROPE:  Rope is expensive.  Where can I get cheep rope?

WARNING:  THIS IS LIKE ASKING,

WHERE CAN I BUY CHEAP RE-TREAD TIRES FOR MY CAR?