Michael Lawson wrote:

I'm thinking of modifying the rope to attach to
a rope wraparound thing that you'd find at the
bottom of a flagpole (yes, I can use technical
terms) and reknot it every so often. That'll get
me by until summer, and I'll reevaluate things
again.



Heh. Can't find a url to show you.

Take two long pieces of wire, double over, insert each into one end of a
compression spring, bend all wire ends out and over the ends of the
springs.

Pull on the wire loops, and the spring compresses.

These are availible commercially.

Tying off the antenna will result in the antenna wire stretching, so you
will have to tie off more often than you might like.

The easy way to keep the kids off the antenna might be to borrow a fence
charger for a while. It takes a wife with a certain sense of humor to
not kill you afterwords, of course.

Or a wife with enough sense to realize kids have to learn what "Don't
touch" means.