[ADXA] bright ideas needed

Thu Mar 21 11:50:44 EDT 2024

If you get the yaesu rotor go ahead and pay the other 20.00 and get the
shock mount, it will allow for a bit of misalignment AND prolong the 
life of the rotor

KF5TL
Charles


On 2024-03-21 09:45, Dennis Schaefer wrote:
> Thanks, Charles.  I have had good luck with my Ham-IV so far.  I
> bought it in 1986 and replaced the direction pot once.  That’s about
> 18 years between repairs.  I know I have been very lucky!  The current
> antenna is probably 40 lbs and not a tremendous amount of wind
> loading.  I had a big Mosley, 81 pounds, for years, and it held up.
> 
> I’m going to put in the spare Ham IV, which formerly belonged to
> K5OVC, and hope the OVC magic holds up!   I will keep in mind the
> Yaesu suggestions in case I run into any frustrations.  Maybe they
> even eliminate the necessity of shimming the mast unless it is the
> exact size.  That’s always an irritant with CDE rotators.
> 
> 73,
> Dennis
> 
> On Thu, Mar 21, 2024 at 9:29 AM <charles at mckenziemonuments.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> I gave up on tail twisters and bought a Yaesu 2800 , and a heavier
>> one
>> if it fails.
>> I even hate to give the blinking twisters things away with all the
>> issues I had with them!!
>> If you can stand the little extra an Antenna Genius is a great
>> option,
>> it will control 2
>> rotors, your direction indicator is a compass on the antennas boom.
>> you
>> need 2 wires to the
>> Rotor for power and a cat 5  or 6 to the compass. The genius needs a
>> cat
>> 5 or 6 cable.
>> Thats what I am going to for both towers rotation controls. With a
>> rotating tower a
>> piece of PVC attached to the tower just above head height will
>> suffice.
>> 73 KF5TL
>> Charles
>> 
>> On 2024-03-20 18:58, Dennis Schaefer wrote:
>>> My rotator quit indicating.  It rotates, but the pot in the motor
>> unit
>>> has opened up.  I can run outside and see which way it is
>> pointing,
>>> but that isn't very elegant, especially since my back and neck are
>>> still a little messed up.  I need a way to temporarily tell the
>>> direction until I get it fixed.
>>> 
>>> I thought about a camera, but the way our house is arranged, the
>> only
>>> window I can put one in faces West and gets direct sun into the
>> lens
>>> several hours a day.  Its a cheap camera, and it might not hurt
>>> anything, but it would make the camera unusable for that time.  I
>>> could probably get an outdoor-rated camera and point it somewhere
>> out
>>> of direct sun.  That's the only real solution I can think of.
>>> 
>>> The antenna and rotator are on a Hazer that only comes down to the
>>> garage roof.  I can't climb on the roof anymore, so I think the
>> Hazer
>>> is going to go away in favor of a more standard configuration.
>>> Someone who knows way more than I do is coming by later in the
>> week
>>> and will advise me.
>>> 
>>> I will probably put the Force-12 C3 back up but I sure wish there
>> was
>>> something I could do to make it work better, or at least have a
>> better
>>> SWR, on 12 meters.  I guess a QRO antenna tuner would be the best
>>> option.  The 4.5 SWR on 12M doesn't make the amp very happy.  I
>> have a
>>> Dentron tuner that is stout enough, but it does not have a bypass
>>> switch.  It would probably be easy to rig something with two
>> switches,
>>> but that would have the possibility for accidentally running power
>>> into an open feed would always be there.  The C-3 has two direct
>>> coupled elements for 10 meters, and one is for operating FM above
>> 28.9
>>> Mhz.  I wish I knew what would happen if I extended that element
>> to
>>> make it resonate on 12 meters.  I plan to get help to get this all
>>> done in one shot, so I don't have the luxury of time for antenna
>>> experimentation.
>>> 
>>> Ideas or comments are welcome!
>>> 
>>> 73,
>>> Dennis
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