Hi Bob....I had almost the same distance to conquer at my old QTH in Bear,
Del. The voltage drop was too great for the T2X. I found the easiest
solution was to put a small transformer in series with the secondary of the
power transformer in the T2X control box. This increased the voltage for
both the solenoid and the motor in the rotor. I used a 12.6 volt, 3 amp
transformer in series. I mounted this on the outside of the rear panel of
the control box, running the wires through a grommet in the panel.
I used the same setup on a second tower that was 300 feet away, up 70 feet.
BTW, rather than burying expensive rotor cable in conduit, I used 3 runs of
1/2 inch CATV hardline (the price was right -- FREE), directly buried from
the house to the tower. This gave me 6 conductors for the rotor control. I
used standard rotor cable from the base of the tower to the rotor.
What about the other two conductors? I removed the starting capacitor from
the control box and mounted it right beneath the rotor. If you're worried
about ever having to climb the tower to replace the capacitor, you could
just mount it at the base of the tower.
This setup worked fine for about 10 years before I moved.
73/Jon AA1K
At 02:30 AM 12/10/96 +0000, you wrote:
>I have a tower located 200' from the radio shack, the tower is 125'
>tall. My plans are to run the leads in conduit below ground and am
>wondering how well the rotor (TailTwister) will perform. By the time I
>get through running the lead for the rotor it will be approx. 350'.
>The lead I have is 2/12 gage and 6/14 gage. I'm hoping the voltage drop
>won't be that much but am not sure. Any suggestions?
>
>73's, Bob, K5BC
>
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FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/towertalkfaq.html
Submissions: towertalk@contesting.com
Administrative requests: towertalk-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems: K7LXC@contesting.com
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