Where are all those free YAESU
Controllers ?? I will take one any day.
73, Dick, W1KSZ
On Mon, Mar 2, 2020 at 10:19 PM Grant Saviers <grants2@pacbell.net> wrote:
> My 2c from some rebuild experiences
>
> Hams seem to think grease lasts forever. Bearing manufacturers state 5
> years, but I think that is conservative. Precision greases have a "use
> by" date. Now put a rotator in direct sun and elements and who knows.
>
> What I found in several rebuilds was dry races with divots from balls
> sitting in one place too long (fretting corrosion), and rusty balls.
> Rotators from SK estates may not have been rotated for years.
>
> OTOH, cleaning up the sludge, installing new SS balls, taking a little
> 220 grit to the divots and my refurb 2800 SDX has been up for 8 years,
> big 4L steppir, working fine. I use full synthetic grease - Superlube.
> Same for a Ham-IV. Same process for a pre Yaesu G-5500 EL-AZ which had
> leaking ends, trashed balls, rusty gears, now works ok, but a more
> difficult refurb. There really are no "seals" as such (like RS ball
> bearings) in what I have disassembled, just a configuration that sheds
> water when upright. Not good if stored outside laying down.
>
> The bad news is plain steel ball bearings in a die cast aluminum race is
> a bad idea (except for cost), but the good news is the mechanism is so
> sloppy it doesn't matter much. Keep the water out and lube it every
> 5-10 years and I think they will last a long time as "no maintenance"
> Hammy Hambone regularly demonstrates.
>
> My advice for a Yaesu disassembly is keep careful track of the top and
> bottom section registration and the pot position and put it back
> together exactly the same way.
>
> Older ones are a big caveat emptor, but if they rotate and indicate, are
> perhaps a good refurb candidate. About $50 for balls and grease and your
> time and the risk that something else is wrong inside.
>
> Attractive pricing at a hamfest - SDX $200; DXA $400 assuming
> demonstration. I value the Yaesu controller at zero, they've been
> offered for free on towertalk when replaced with a GH.
>
> Grant KZ1W
>
>
> On 3/2/2020 19:07, john@kk9a.com wrote:
> > Good advice Jim. I think that it's silly to exclude most of the US ham
> > population from buying it by not offering shipping. This is an aluminum
> > rotator that weighs 15 pounds. I brought three of them to Aruba.
> >
> > John KK9A
> >
> > jimlux wrote:
> >
> > Certainly no more than half the new price.
> > Think of these in terms of:
> > 1) what was the original warranty (I assume you're selling as-is)
> > 2) What is the design life? What's the wear out component and how much
> > of its life is left?
> >
> > This is kind of tricky - there are plenty of electric motors out there
> > that are 100 years old and still working - but that doesn't mean that
> > they were designed to last that long - you might have gotten lucky, or
> > the loads were low, etc.
> >
> > In the case of used gear you don't really know the history - sure, the
> > ham selling it to you (if alive) will say that it was never abused, but
> > oh yeah, there was that wind storm 10 years ago which bent a bunch of
> > the elements on his antenna. Nobody has *real* usage data (like you
> > would with a regularly monitored mechanical system).
> >
> > I would think that the wear out parts are things like bearings, seals,
> > feedback pots, etc. What affects its wearout? temperature, ice, water,
> > mechanical loads. These are all hard to estimate. It's not like a car
> > engine, where you've got X hours of running at Y RPM, against a rated
> > bearing life of Z hours.
> >
> > I would assume, without other information, that the useful life of
> > something like this is 10-15 years - I can't imagine a company
> > *designing* for a 20 year life for a piece of consumer gear. Therefore,
> > the 15 year old one is basically at "scrap value" - what are the parts
> > inside worth if someone wanted to use it to fix something else, or if
> > they were going to sell it as scrap metal. If someone happened to need
> > the control box, or the connectors on the cables, it might be worth a
> > bit more *to that one person*.
> >
> > The 2 year old one that's been outside, but not operated? A lot would
> > depend on the environment, and what the seals are like. It's probably
> > not "worn out", but if something sits, unmoving, through rain, ice, sun
> > beating on it, etc., it might have developed leaks, or the elastomers
> > have gotten stiff.
> >
> > It's not under warranty. Maybe half the new price if *everything* is
> > like new and there's no obvious damage.
> >
> > At some point, too, you've got to decide if shipping 40-50 lbs is worth
> > it. Shipping UPS for something that size is about $75-80 depending on
> > where it's going.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > There are few if any recent examples on the usual swap forums and I’d
> >> like to sell them locally (they’re very heavy).
> >>
> >> - The first is a used G-2800 SDX rotor and controller. Nothing special
> > other
> >> than its fully functional with all parts included. It had been mounted
> on
> > a
> >> tower for 15 years rotating a VHF stack (6, 2, 1.25 and 0.7-meter
> yagis).
> >>
> >> - The second is a relatively new (1 ½ years old) G-2800 DXA rotor,
> >> controller and tower shock absolver. The controller has the optional
> >> remote-control interface installed. It had been mounted on the tower
> but,
> >> the owner passed away before the full VHF array could be assembled. It’s
> >> also fully functional with all parts included.
> >>
> >> Any advice would be appreciated.
> >> (this is not an offer to sell them)
> >>
> >> 73, Jim
> >> K0MHC
> >> Kerrville, TX
> >
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