ORIGINAL MESSAGE:
On Fri, 8 Dec 2006 05:40:42 EST, JMLTINC@aol.com wrote:
>He is now considering replacing these (as they fail again) with Yaesu
>G1000-DXA's.
------------ REPLY FOLLOWS ------------
I have two G1000DXAs. One has performed fine for several years but the
other has had an intermittent connection of some kind and has now
finally failed completely. Apparently it is something in the rotator
itself, since swapping the two control boxes does not fix the problem.
It might be in the cable although I have been up the tower to examine
the connector and everything looks ok there as well as at the control
box end. I am replacing the bad one with an Alfa Spid in the next
couple of weeks and will be able to diagnose the problem once it's on
the ground. When it is working, it is great.
The only complaint I have with the Yaesu rotator in general is the
illumination of the dial. In a dark room it is almost impossible to
see where the pointer is because it is illuminated from the back
instead of the front. I added a dab of white paint to the tip of the
pointer and found that to be much better. This is one item that could
be engineered much better, but the white paint is a reasonably good
fix.
I have had a couple of Hy-Gain rotators and consider them a poor
second choice compared to the Yaesu. The sticky brake issue has been a
problem with Hy-Gain for years and has never been resolved as far as I
know. It has been about six years since I have used a Hy-Gain so maybe
it has been fixed but I haven't heard anyone say so. Also, the power
supply for the direction indicating meter is unregulated, causing the
indicator to drift with temperature and changes in line voltage. This
was so annoying to me that I installed a regulator IC in the box and
that fixed the problem although it voided the warranty of course. I
wrote to Hy-Gain complaining about it but they just ignored the
problem. Apparently a drifty meter is of no concern to them. I warned
them at the time (about 12 years ago) that if they didn't fix their
obvious design problems, they were going to lose a large share of the
rotator business and that's exactly what has happened. Now that
Hy-Gain has been take over by MFJ I don't see any hope of improvement.
Bill, W6WRT
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