One additional advantage of mounting the motor start capacitor on the tower
at the rotor is the availability of two extra wires in the usual 8-wire rotor
control cable. These two wires can be put to good use.
The two larger gauge wires in the 8-wire control cable used by most hams,
e.g. the Black wire and the White wire often attached to #1 and #2 on the
control box and rotor are NOT, as many think, the wires that go to the
rotor's motor windings. They are for the solenoid on the brake. Only one of
these wires goes to the motor winding, The two "return" motor winding
connections are usually made with the smaller gage wire. This does nothing
to reduce the IR drop in the control cable over long runs.
By using one of the "capacitor" wires on each leg of the motor return you
increase the current carrying capacity and improve the rotor motors
performance. HyGain/Telex never bothered to point this out in their manual.
By the way good motor start caps can be bought for less than $10 from W. W.
Grainger, and don't need more than a little RTV on the contacts for weather
proofing. They are designed to perform "outside" for years.... check your
outside A/C unit.
joe, W5ASP
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