Another thing I have in a pack is Velcro, I have a roll of it (2-rolls as you need both sides of it) that is sticky in one side. You peal & stick it (like tape) It’s not super strong but I have found it useful for things at times.

They make releasable ones?! Now THAT would be handy. The single use aspect has been what's always kept me with 550 cord for shelter building and gear repair.

The velco straps used for securing cables are amazing for all kinds of tasks. I go through these things like crazy around the house. I get the Velco brand 'One-Wrap' straps. They come in all different shapes, sizes, colors, and roll lengths.

http://www.velcro.com/industrial/one.html

Actually most zip ties are releasable. Most require the use of a small tool to depress the locking mechanism while extracting the end. I've used zip ties extensively for the past 25 years. The best were coated metal strap type that I used mostly for tying heliax to the sides of towers. I still have a handful of them in one of my bags. You could just about use them for choking logs off a mountain, they are pretty tough.

Get black ties rather than white, they hold up to the UV better. One thing to remember, there's no such thing as a zip tie that's too big, but you can get them too small for a task. If you do, be aware that they can be daisy-chained together to make them longer.

As for what to use them for, use them for lashing a skein of line up, or extension cords, or locking two sticks together either in parallel or perpendicular for framing work, or a green branch into a loop, or lashing branches to framing to make walls or roof cover, or splicing line without knotting it up, or as stitching along heavy seams like canvas or leather or as a bag end closure, or as emergency shoe lacing, etc.

Lowe's Home Improvement stores have a wide variety of ties in their electrical supply department.

Aren't you supposed to use a butterfly hanger and stand off adapter to secure Andrew transmission lines onto towers? At least for 1 5/8" and up...

You can, and if you have them handy I reckon you probably ought to go with what the mfrs recommendations are, but when I am out fixing or repairing or rerouting equipment on a tower, I make use of what is in the van, and if that means using the coated metal banding, that's what gets used. Long as it is secured tight and not binding over an edge of angle iron or some such, it won't hurt the line any. I don't worry too much anymore about cross coupling on the outer conductors, we have to ground out the heliax/coax transmission line so heavily anyways to meet lightning arrest electrical code that any spurious energy in the outer conductors is usually dissipated long before it can eddy out into another adjacent line.

I usually have bigger problems on a site with intermod mixing or multi path due to some bozo having mounted an aluminum bracket directly onto a galvanized steel brace. Thank God for conductive grease! Then there's the ding-a-ling that doesn't screw down his N-Connectors all the way, ARRRRGGGHHHH!

On the other hand there isn't much, can't think of anything off hand, that you can do with a nylon zip-tie that you couldn't do with a good piece of light line. In production work zip-ties get used not so much because they are good but because they are quick and so many people these days don't know how to tie a decent knot. Half of those who know don't practice enough to do ti quickly.

I have a few small sucrets boxes that I keep things in in a small tool bag. A zip tie is secured around each one and it keeps it closed very nicely.....it also slips on and off easily since the 'case' is smooth plastic. So I have it securely fastened and easily accessible....a nice balance.....

From an earlier post I'll add......a nice 'source' (at least for me) for some of the large/thick zip ties....though already used...7-11 or the gas station....they use them to hold up their signs.....when they pull the sign down the tie usually stays behind.....I've asked and been granted permission to remove some when they are building up on the pole. They hold several of my containers closed....just remember they are 'used' so if you do get a few....use good judgement in their suitable uses.....

One thing about using zip ties vs. tying line, when I am holding something that I need to bind together in one hand, I can fairly easily put a zip tie on the bind with the other, whereas I am seldom able to tie a line with only one hand. It can be done, but it is awful hard most of the time. Hanging on a tower while holding down a loose cable, I can grab a zip tie, wrap it around the cable and the tie-down brace, and push the tip through the eyelet, using just one hand the whole time. I am also able to do zip-ties when my hands are so cold they are fairly numb, when I have been unable to tie a knot in a line without great difficulty.

Maybe there's folks out there who are better at line tying than I am, but the dozen or so field techs I've worked with would agree zip ties are a lot easier to deploy than line as a fastener out in the field. Calf roping might be a good place where tying a line could be preferable to using a zip-tie, if you know what you are doing. I reckon there's a whole lot more folks out there that could bind up three legs with a proper sized zip tie than could work out a three wrap hitch knot and expect it to hold, without any practice.