Triangular spinning guides?

[jurelometer]

Thanks for the replies. Lots of food for thought here. Now I've a hankering to go out and cast my Microwave rods again and see if I can really dial it in.

The AmTack videos and pictorials I remember seeing had a basic explanation of the rapid choke concept, and how it applied to their unique stripper guide's goal of taming the coils of line. On another video I re-watched this morning, the presenter suggests to "dial back the power of your cast", but it isn't clear if he is saying it for presentation purposes...or if doing so is how Microwave guides are made to be used.

Haven't had any trouble with similar ultralight rods I later built, falling back on the tried-and-true NGC and 27x styles of guide layout.

I assume that this is the video for American Teckle that you referenced:

It seems pretty clear to me that he is instructing the tester to dial back the force and increase the launch angle with the microwave rod.  That is rigging the test. 

The velocity that you need is the velocity that you need. More velocity is going to give you more distance.  If the microwave guide system has undesirable behaviors at higher velocities that other guide systems don't have, then this is a problem.

Regarding angle: If you are casting for distance, the optimal launch angle is going to be around 45 degrees, with some adjustments for wind direction and speed,  wind resistance of the payload, etc..

The cynic in me says that they are suggesting to increase the launch angle a bit to increase the distance, in order to make up for the lost velocity from casting with less force.

Maybe the change in launch angle would be valid if the relative resistance from impact is higher at the beginning of the cast for the microwaves, but that would also mean that the design is less useful at higher velocities.   Not good.  And the most accurate cast is the straightest cast, so if you need to dial back the force and increase the angle for a short cast like the one  in this video, that is no bueño either.

In summary , the alternate casting instructions for the microwaves are kinda damming for them.

I am starting to wonder if the Microwave advantage declines as velocity increases.  But it could simply be that casting the rod more softly at a higher angle  will cause less line slap for the same distance. (for any guide system), which is the advantage that they are trying to demonstrate.  Both pass  the Occam's Razor test.  And these testing instructions would help to obscure this type of issue.

Maybe the Microwaves work ok, but the more I learn, the less excited I get.

-J

[cbar45]

That would be it. Good observations on Occam's Razor. I didn't get why he was saying to cast only the Cone-of Flight setup as you normally would, and not both. 

But anyways...I've thought about wrapping a rod with the stripper being composed of separate high frame size 20 and size 6 guides—-set up like the Microwave system but a tad further apart.

It'll look goofy (and from a manufacturer's aesthetic standpoint be harder to sell), but my hunch is that such a rod will do better at launching hard-hitting casts.