Dean: some overnight addenda --
1. Control unit: the best. The preset feature is a dream. A few years
ago N6TV switched from Create to Orion and asked W6QHS (now W6NL) to
engineer a mod so he could keep using the Create control box with the new
rotor. These mods were published in NCJ. Bob is turning one of N6BT's F12
christmas trees and had some complaints about the Create rotor not being
able to adequately turn 5 or 6 big antennas on a single mast. I'm sure he'd
give you the details.
2. Rotor-to-mast clamp. Like the Yaesu rotors, this is the weak part of
the design. Some type of sintered <?> aluminum <or something>, it's cast
metal. One half of mine cracked when the tower it was in fell over in a
storm <70' 25G with a KT34XA on it> at AG6D. Not having another on hand,
and since they were back-ordered at EEB, I epoxied mine back together and
strapped it; it's worked fine since then. K5RC had talked about building
these things out of stainless but was never able to make the economics work.
If you pay attention to the details of assembly and tighten them correctly,
they stay together all right. <I'm sure Steve has a few choice words to say
about these clamps, also.>
3. Tolerance to weather: lest you think all my experience is from sunny
W6-land, the first 5 years I had the rotor I was in North Carolina, so mine
has been through snow, ice storms, tornados, etc. The milspec connector
works fine -- I've never had any problems with cable, connections, etc.
None of that weird, little T2X/HamIV terminal strip dangling in the breeze
stuff...
73, Steve K6AW
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