Hi Jon,
Just finished reading your post and I want to thank you for posting your
fabulous ideas. I guess it goes to show that your mind can take you places
your wallet would never let you in to see. What I mean by this is... I wish
I had thought about your ideas six months ago when I forked over all that
bread for new rotor cable.
I wonder if you've thought of some interesting schemes for disconnecting the
cable from the rotor as cheaply. There always seems to be a time that must
happen and it's a bear of an effort disconnecting six or eight conductors
from screws in all the wrong places.
The best idea I've heard about lately... other than the expensive in-line
waterproof connector the rotor guys sell (assuming a HAM # style rotor) is
to ... a) remove the screws from the rotor terminal strip, b) remove the
two screws holding the terminal strip on the casting, c) thread your control
wires through the terminal screw holes of the terminal strip and solder them
to the connections inside, d) re-attach the terminal strip.
Now three or four feet away from the rotor cut the cable and bring it into a
waterproof electrical box that you can mount somewhere on your mast or tower
with the cables entering from the bottom. Inside this box you could join
all your cables with electricians wire nuts that are first filled with a
compound such as Noalox or Penetrox etc.. It is not necessary to seal the
box thoroughly since water vapor will get into most anything and leaving air
to get in and out is OK as long a the hole is on the bottom for any moisture
to drain out.
In just a few minutes your could have the cables either connected or
disconnected for practically pennies in cost. The next best thought is to
put Cinch Jones connectors on the cables at this point and find a box big
enough that would allow you to pull the plug bodies through an opening or a
slot.
That, I'm afraid is the limitation here since trying to pull a cable with a
Cinch Jones sized connector through an opening in your house is sometimes a
real problem since most of us would be reluctant to make such a large
hole... but I could be wrong here. Then again, it wouldn't be necessary to
do that if you had a Cinch Jones connector on the back of your rotor control
box too.
Then, you could bring the rotor down from the tower and connect it up in the
shack with the rotor control box for testing... all without pulling rotor
cable with large plugs through horrendously large holes in your house walls.
Anyone got any better ideas? (Please don't tell me to gold plate the wires
first!)
Thanks all,
Roger, K2JAS
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