[ADXA] bright ideas needed

[Nick Kennedy]

Man, I went through all that HAM-2 indication stuff big time. First, after
getting it and the KT-34A on the tower back around 2000, I found the
indication not working right, and now just a couple months ago trying to
fix that issue and do general maintenance before trying the rotator again.
(This time to be near ground level.)

I'd assumed I had messed up the connections of the 8-wire cable at the
rotator's TB, but no - it was an internal problem.

The schematic really messes with my  mind as it uses ground as the return
conductor for the pot wiper. I never found a for-sure smoking gun for the
problem, but there are some sliding contacts that perhaps had intermittent
high resistance. Anyway, after a lot of cleaning it seems to work OK.

Overall, they built those things hell-for-stout back around fifty years
ago,. It clanks like a Caterpillar tractor, but will still get up and go
when I push the button.

73

Nick, WA5BDU

On Wed, Mar 20, 2024 at 6:59 PM Dennis Schaefer <dennisw5rz at gmail.com>
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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