Seems like folks are missing the fact that your rotator works as poorly
in your garage with a short new cable as it does on the tower.
Unless I'm mixing up my rotators, there should be a physically large
starter/phasing capacitor in the control box - prime suspect for a non-
starting rotator - they go bad all the time.
Mike N2MG
PY1OL wrote:
My HAM IV rotator has a strange failure.
One night I turned on the control box and tried to turn the beam (a single
Force 12 C-3, nothing more). It did not turn (the needle did not move and
the antenna really did not move too). I tried to rotate to the other
direction. No operation. I gave up. A month later, without touching
anything, it worked again. It kept OK for, say, two months. On a given
night it stoped working again. One week later it came back to life. Then
after a month it stoped working again. This cycle repeated several times.
When I had the chance, during a "stop", I took it from the tower.
Before disassembling it, I connected it (in my garage) to the control box
using a short piece of cable. It worked perfectly... I left everything
assembled in the garage and some days later I tested it again. The rotor
did not turn. I disassembled it, but I did not find any signs of damage.
Even the break wedge seems to work perfectly. In resume, the rotor simply
keeps this strange behaviour but, inside it, every piece seems brand new.
Has anybody already experienced this kind of failure? Assuming that the
cable is not the problem, may I suspect of a problem in the control box?
What components should I investigate?
Your advice will be much appreciated.
73 de Roger, PY1OL
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