Don't be so quick judge a product by a couple of bad stories. I have had the
Prosistel pst61 up and running for over 3 years. A 24' chrome molly mast at
172#, turning a F12 Mag340N, F12 C31XR and 68'rotatable dipole sitting on a
hilltop with constant wind abuse. I have never had a glitch...ever. Has
performed flawlessly and I have it loaded pretty well. I have experience
with a company that manufactures marine electronics products and the
engineers say that 90% of the product returned for service has nothing
whatsoever wrong with it...a LOT of operator error and botched
installations. Also, a report yesterday on a news webpage by a Dutch
researcher/scientist I think, says they found that at least 50% of all
returned electronics items had nothing wrong with them...No personal
judgments here and it might not apply to these cases, but don't rule it out
either. I would buy another PST61 from WX0B in a heartbeat. I also have all
my ham style rotors rebuilt by the RotorDoc (CATS) with no failures. The
RD1800 is well engineered and Craig is a stand up guy...Would not have
anyone else touch my rotors. The Prosistel PST 61 is a Clydesdale horse with
a lot of power and torque...a Prosistel-WX0B happy customer.
Tommy WD4K
-----Original Message-----
From: towertalk-bounces@contesting.com
[mailto:towertalk-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of
towertalk-request@contesting.com
Sent: Tuesday, March 07, 2006 11:01 AM
To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: TowerTalk Digest, Vol 39, Issue 16
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Today's Topics:
1. Re: dirty trix? (EL34GUY@aol.com)
2. Re: dirty trix? (Michael Tope)
3. Routing coax through the rotator (was dirty trix) (Mark .)
4. Re: Routing coax through the rotator (was dirty trix) (Don Moman)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Mon, 6 Mar 2006 20:22:56 EST
From: EL34GUY@aol.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] dirty trix?
To: df3kv@t-online.de, mike.harris@horizon.co.fk
Cc: towertalk@contesting.com
Message-ID: <1ab.49069748.313e3a70@aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
Actually Ive been using the spid to turn my house as I paint it, hihi! I
cant say enough about the spid or the rd1800 as well.
One of the things that is unbelievable about both these companies is their
customer service. Very very happy with both on it and its something that
seems
to be diminishing rapidly in our business climate today. The spid folks
worked with me for months on getting one in my LM470D, great assistance. It
just
doesn't move, and that's what I wanted!!!! 73
Mark
W0NCL
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Tue, 7 Mar 2006 05:00:08 -0800
From: "Michael Tope" <W4EF@dellroy.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] dirty trix?
To: "Mike Harris" <mike.harris@horizon.co.fk>, <df3kv@t-online.de>
Cc: towertalk@contesting.com
Message-ID: <02dc01c641e7$120499a0$21f69580@1800xp>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
reply-type=original
----- Original Message -----
From: <df3kv@t-online.de>
>I can tell you my experience.
>I own 4x PST2051, two of them failed mechanically after very short use.
>3 of the 4 control units failed electronically, power supply failure,
>diver transistors, diodes etc. all with the type control boxes.
>Two were repaired during warranty, the rotators the same.
>All together my control boxes failed 5 times so far, 2 of the repairs I
>did myself.
>Anyone around who likes to buy 3 PST 2051 rotators?
>One is never used, two are factory overhauled...
>73
>Peter
One of the local big guns told me he had a bunch
of failures with his as well, Peter. He was looking to
switch to another manufacturer.
Seems that the dirty trix may be the only thing "Big Boy"
has going for him :)
Mike W4EF.......................
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Tue, 07 Mar 2006 08:24:54 -0500
From: "Mark ." <n1lo@hotmail.com>
Subject: [TowerTalk] Routing coax through the rotator (was dirty trix)
To: towertalk@contesting.com
Message-ID: <BAY102-F15237F3AD6A9B32C9808D193EE0@phx.gbl>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
Don, This sounds like an innovative idea. Would you describe in more detail
the path the coax takes from antenna to tower? Are you also routing it
through the mast?
--...MARK_N1LO...--
Don writes:
<< ...snip..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 <Alphaspid>, there is no limit (other than the twist of the coax)
to how
many degrees you can zero out...snip...73 Don VE6JY >>
------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Tue, 7 Mar 2006 16:52:24 -0000
From: "Don Moman" <ve6jy@3web.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Routing coax through the rotator (was dirty
trix)
To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Message-ID: <000001c64207$8388c220$bf9ac5d1@ve6jy>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
It is certainly a method I like to employ when at all possible. Our
rotor allows 720 degrees of total rotation and that can be sometimes
hard to achieve using the traditional big drip loop of coax taped to the
mast and the top of the tower. The advantages are mostly obvious but
there are a couple less so - it is easier on the coax when turning at
-40 degrees. The rotator works fine at that temperature but I worry
about cracking the coax jacket. It does happen at these temps. I
remember pulling a length of coax into the garage on a very cold day.
The coax turned a fairly sharp corner where it went in, however the
jacket carried on straight. It shed 20 or 30 feet of jacket before I
realized. Anyway, I digress..... The other possible advantage is that
if the pipe is long enough you may get some RF (maybe lightning too?)
choking action running thru the pipe. On the 80m yagi (no I'm not
using the AlfaSpid on this one) I run down the tower thru 150 feet of
pipe.
For Mark and others, the coax has to run up and then bend 180 degrees
(at something greater than the minimum bending radius of whatever coax
you are using) and then run down the inside of the mast pipe. Well
taped at this point to support the weight of the coax and prevent
chafing. The AlfaSpid gearbox has a hollow center (you may need to
remove one small bolt running thru the lower mast designed to keep the
rotator from sitting too low on the lower mast) of just a bit over 3/4
inch. This allows a standard N or PL259 to go thru, or 1/2" heliax (or
similar) if you put the connector on later. I just let the coax drop
straight out the bottom for maybe 10 feet or so and then tape it to the
tower, taking the weight off and allowing slack for it to twist as
needed. Our flat plate mounting adaptor also has a hole in it to allow
the coax to continue thru. With one coax only, purists could employ a
RF rotary joint here. Homebrewers could try a home made rotary joint
from a BNC connector. If you have more than one feedline you will have
to compromise and use smaller coax to fit them all in.
I don't know if any other current production amateur rotors have this
feature (I'm not aware of any so far) but I certainly think it is a
handy feature. It is quite common in the very large rotors for military
log periodics and such.
73 Don
VE6JY
-----Original Message-----
From: towertalk-bounces@contesting.com
[mailto:towertalk-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Mark .
Sent: Tuesday, March 07, 2006 1:25 PM
To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: [TowerTalk] Routing coax through the rotator (was dirty trix)
Don, This sounds like an innovative idea. Would you describe in more
detail
the path the coax takes from antenna to tower? Are you also routing it
through the mast?
--...MARK_N1LO...--
Don writes:
<< ...snip..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 <Alphaspid>, there is no limit (other than the twist of the
coax)
to how
many degrees you can zero out...snip...73 Don VE6JY >>
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End of TowerTalk Digest, Vol 39, Issue 16
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