Tom,
I have only one Tailtwister currently in my station, using a 350 foot control
cable. I did several things to obtain completely reliable operation:
- I relocated the capacitor to the tower base (you could place it next to the
rotator, but I prefer to locate it where I can get easy access),
- I use #12 wire for the brake and motor wires,
- I added a voltage boosting transformer to the back of the control box to
increase the brake voltage.
It's operated reliably for 20 years in this configuration, except for rotor
rebuilds every 4 or 5 years due to the large antenna load (7 elements on 10
meters on a 48 foot boom).
I originally had four additional Tailtwisters in my station, all using the same
scheme described above, with the longest cable run of nearly 600 feet. They
turned two large 5 element 20 meter Yagis, and two large 6 element 15 meter
Yagis, all on 48 foot booms. Those four Tailtwister rotators were removed from
service when the original two towers were replaced with two new 150 foot
rotating towers. The original fixed towers and the four Tailtwister rotators
were a whole lot more cost effective than the rotating towers!
Good luck, this same arrangement will work fine for you.
73!
Frank
W3LPL
---- Original message ----
>Date: Fri, 1 Sep 2006 18:00:53 -0500
>From: "Tom Hellem" <tomhellem@czo.net>
>Subject: [TowerTalk] Rotator cable length
>To: "Towertalk submit" <towertalk@contesting.com>
>
>Hi All:
>The Hy-Gain manual specifies maximum length of 300' for Tailtwister cable
>using #14 conductors for the power leads. Has anyone successfully used a
>longer one? Can I just up the conductor size to #12, or, any better ideas? My
>run looks like it will be around 350 feet.
>
>Tom K0SN
>Porterfield, WI
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