I won't comment much on alfaspid.com redirect issue, many of you have
told us about this so we have been aware of it for some time.
To address Roger's (K8RI) comment - I too had some concerns when I saw
the mounting clamp on the first SPID unit as well, but I have to admit
it is very effective, once I actually did some experimenting with it and
saw how it holds. It is one of the few clamps that allow any size of
mast to be perfectly centered. And with the adaptor plate to allow a
flat mount, it should accommodate just about mounting situation.
However, in almost all of my installations, and when given a choice, I
prefer the pipe mount. I don't need a rotor shelf then which makes life
simpler. Allowing the lower mast to slide out of the lower mast clamp
simplifies installation. And if you are mounting an antenna with the
rotator above the tower, it has obvious advantages.
With all this previous talk on this forum about slipping Orion mast
clamps and such, the 8 pressure points from the bolts in our clamp dig
in very well. Obviously the mast has to be sized to the load - you can
easily squash a weak mast if you over tighten. With a really hard
surface mast you might need to dimple the mast to allow the bolts to
catch a bit better. Of the same design, we have built a mast coupler
using 16 bolts to simplify joining mast sections for those wishing to
mount their unit lower in the tower.
Whenever possible, I run the coax thru the rotor and out the bottom pipe
so even if something does slip, it is a simple matter to recalibrate.
With ours, there is no limit (other than the twist of the coax) to how
many degrees you can zero out.
We (Mitch VE6JTM and I) are finalizing plans to attend Visalia this year
and to announce a significantly larger version of the Alfa Spid azimuth
rotor at that time. We have the first unit in hand and will be testing
it shortly. I have not seen it personally but will later this week.
This should be the perfect match for the MonstIR yagis and bigger
stacks. I have a 5 el 40m yagi that will be one of the first places I
will want to test this unit on, but we are still a fair time away from
antenna season up here.
73 Don
VE6JY
http://alfaradio.ca/ or http://www.alfaradio.ca/
PS it's AlfaSpid not AlphaSpid - since the rotor is a joint project
between Alfa Radio in Canada and SPID Electronik in Poland.
-----Original Message-----
From: towertalk-bounces@contesting.com
[mailto:towertalk-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of K8RI on Tower
talk
Sent: Monday, March 06, 2006 7:39 PM
To: Matt Patterson; towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] dirty trix?
> Doesn't say much for Prosistel does it?
>
> FWIW...Personally I would steer clear of these guys as I've had first
> hand experience with one of thir BigBoy rotors. I also know others
> with similar experiences.
I'm not defending their tactics and I probably would have purchased
differently had they been using them back when I needed a rotator, but I
have to say that it is one of the best built rotators I have seen and
used.
They have also been easy to deal with. About the only problems I've
heard of
is using them in cold climates. The gear box lube needs to be changed to
operate at the low temps.
Were I to be purchasing now, I'd probably go with the AlphaSpid, but I
like
the design of the Big Boy rotators and think they are better built. For
that price at well over twice that of the AlphaSpid, it should be.
I'm probably going to purchase an AlphaSpid as a backup for just-in-case
as
the ProsisTel and AlphaSpid are about the only ones that will handle the
load. OTOH I *really* dislike the AlphaSpid mounting setup.
Roger Halstead (K8RI and ARRL 40 year Life Member)
N833R - World's oldest Debonair CD-2
www.rogerhalstead.com
>
> 73 Matt
> W5LL
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Pete Smith" <n4zr@contesting.com>
> To: "Jim Lux" <jimlux@earthlink.net>; <towertalk@contesting.com>
> Sent: Monday, March 06, 2006 9:20 AM
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] dirty trix?
>
>
>> At 09:21 AM 3/6/2006, Jim Lux wrote:
>>>At 04:39 AM 3/6/2006, Pete Smith wrote:
>>>>What's up with www.alfaspid.com? I was researching heavy-duty
>>>>rotators the other day, and despite the name this one takes me to
>>>>Prosistel's home page.
>>>>
>>>>73, Pete N4ZR
>>>>The World HF Contest Station Database
>>>>Full details on 3085 contest stations
>>>>at http://www.pvrc.org/WCSD/WCSDsearch.htm
>>>
>>>
>>>See archives:
>>>http://dayton.akorn.net/archives//html/Towertalk/2004-06/msg00334.htm
>>>l
>>>for a discussion of this
>>>
>>
>> Ah, I had forgotten - so this particular dirty trick has been going
>> on
>> for
>> a long time. Well, shame on them. I see that the domain name's
>> registration expires the end of this month - perhaps they will do the
>> right thing and not renew it.
>>
>> 73, Pete N4ZR
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
>
>
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