Terry,
It is the same EXACT symptoms I had here on my G-800SA. I suspected a
lightning surge. After wasting much time testing, cleaning plugs, new cap,
test
rotor pot, taking apart rotor, it came down to what I suspected (and others
predicted). A control line surge damaged the small circuit board. It would
not give proper readings over the entire 450 degree turn, even though the pot
was fine, a smooth 10-450 ohms change with rotation. When trying to
balance/align the control unit, it appears to "run out" of adjustment pot on
the back.
You may have another problem, of course.
Mulled over what to do: let Yaesu charge big bucks to fix it and maybe have
it re-occur, buy the great universal controller by Green Heron ($$$) for any
brand rotor, or trash it (not an option). I got by for 8-9 months by using
the controller just to turn the rotor. I bypassed the two wires from the
tower with the rotor resistance reading, and fed them to a digital VOM. By
physically "re-aligning" the rotor, I got direct readout of all headings from
0-360, and did the math when the resistance was over 450ohms. (i.e., 400 ohms
meant 040 deg. (400 - 360 = 040). That would be fine forever, but I got
some birthday money, so...
I didn't want to pay a Yaesu repair for a controller that didn't have
digital control (should have bought the DXA). I found the RC-1Y unit by MDS
that
is DIRECT REPLACEMENT for Yaesu controllers -- but with computer control I
didn't have. Now have computer and manual control, digital readout, and a
paperweight for the workbench (old controller). No connection to MDS.
_http://www.mds-ham.com/RC-1-Y-ROTOR-CONTROL.htm_
(http://www.mds-ham.com/RC-1-Y-ROTOR-CONTROL.htm)
Weigh your options. Hopefully you know someone who can repair the
controller inexpensively, but I didn't have luck there. IMHO, if you decide
to buy a
new 3rd party controller, both the Green Heron and MDS are worth their
RESPECTIVE COST. Just depends on your needs now and expected future brands
of
rotors you may buy. With my modest station, it was apples and oranges to me,
and for now, I chose the oranges.
In a message dated 8/27/2008 11:03:00 A.M. Central Daylight Time,
towertalk-request@contesting.com writes:
Message: 5
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:45:09 -0400
From: "Terrence R. Redding, Ph.D." <terry@oltraining.com>
Subject: [TowerTalk] Yaesu G-800SA Problem
To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Message-ID: <C4DAEEC5.7F882%terry@oltraining.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
While away this summer I had a tropical storm pass through my area. It hit
the tower, and seems to have caused the rotor to loose its orientation.
When I turn the beam counter-clockwise, north lines up. However, when I
turn the beam clockwise the beam is south when the rotor control shows 120
degrees, due west at 180 degrees, and if I continue to turn clockwise, it
goes all the way around to a beam heading of 90 degrees, but the rotor
control in the house only shows 240 degrees.
Anybody know what happened? And, more importantly, how to fix it?
Terry - W6LMJ
**************It's only a deal if it's where you want to go. Find your travel
deal here.
(http://information.travel.aol.com/deals?ncid=aoltrv00050000000047)
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