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ring rotators

Subject: ring rotators
From: draperbl@mdlchtm.eece.unm.edu (Bruce L. Draper)
Date: Thu Apr 8 09:52:54 1993
'm new to the mail reflector, so I didn't see the original
request for information on TIC ring rotators (I received 
only K1VR's reply).  We use about a dozen of the ring
rotators on three Rohn 55 towers at AA6TT's station in SW Colorado.
They turn everything from 8-element 10 meter yagis with
48 foot booms to 6-element 20 meter yagis with 56 ft booms.
We're very happy with our current models -- they seem pretty
reliable.  They are slow, and probably not the most ergonomic
piece of equipment you'll ever own (no direction presets,
tiny toggle switches that you have to hold down the whole time
you're rotating the antenna, etc. . .  although I notice that the 
recent ads in the magazines say that there is a direction preset).
The rotator mechanism itself must be pretty rugged, because I don't
think we've ever had a jam, broken teeth, etc.   I've seen the 20m
rings stall in 70 MPH winds, but they've never broken or slipped.

Last year's models (one control box for up to two rings) had some
reliability problems (electronic components in the box 
would fail often), but the new models are solid.  Like in the 
Ham IV and T2X series rotators, the TIC control box gets connected
to the cable through a terminal strip instead of a plug-in 
connector . . . it's not the most convenient or robust method and does
cause some problems if you move the boxes around a lot like we do.
I don't know what the connection is like up on the tower.

They're not cheap, but neither are new tailtwisters and sidearms.

Adios.

                       Bruce,  AA5Banana

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