This e-mail arrived a few moments ago:
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Maybe you can share this with the Tower Talk crowd, since I am not
subscribed but read the archives.
At the N2AA/K2GL M/M in Tuxedo Park, NY, we had a 403B. It was very
impressive and worked very well. I think I recall someone saying that
there were 13 tapers per element. The droop at the element tip was
measured at less than an inch. It weighed a ton.
We also had a Telrex Bertha, not Hy-Gain, with a custom drive. It
turned at 2 RPM!
And finally, in the "big" Hy-Gain category, we used a hy-gain rotor
called (I think) a 3501. It had three shock-absorbers mounted under
the main gear (which was mounted horizontally and external to the
rotor and was probably 18" in diameter) so that when the beam started
and stopped, it wouldn't rip everything apart. It is pictured in the
"To Win the World" movie and weighed well over 500 pounds (again, I
can't remember exactly, but it's in the movie - maybe it was 650#).
We used it to turn our 80 meter beams...this is back in the 1970's.
Yup...Hy-Gain made some impressive products.
de Doug KR2Q
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I remember seeing Doug's photographs of the 403B at K2GL and there
was no 'droop' in the elements. Unless I am mistaken there was also a
picture of a Wilson 40m... which looked like an umbrella. Perhaps
Doug also recalls what happened when the Bertha with the custom drive
suffered a short and rotated continuously.... I hope my memory isn't
failing me!
The rotating pole mnetioned by Frank was the Hy-gain RP75 which
appeared in QST ads of the time at the home of K7UGA. The rotator for
the pole was the RBX-5 which was doubtless well engineered. Somewhere
I have a catalogue with the 3501 rotor that Doug mentions.
All of which demonstrates how old I am!
Chris
At 01:26 31/12/2007, Frank wrote:
>N3RS uses a forty year old 40 Meter HyGain 403B "DX Long John."
>Sig is fully competitive with every other big gun on the band.
>
>In addition to DX Long Johns, Hy Gain also manufactured a knock-off
>of the Telrex Big Bertha. The only one I ever saw was at K7UGA, which
>supported DX Long Johns for 40, 20, 15 and 10.
>
>73
>Frank
>W3LPL
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