I have two towers placed roughly 450 feet from the shack and are roughly 100
feet tall making the total run to the rotors about 550’. To avoid problems,
I have used 14 gauge ROMEX runs to the tower, moved the starting capacitor
to the base of the towers, and doubled the runs of 14 gauge Romex lines to
the pin 5 and pin 6 (used two #14 solid copper runs to each pin) of Hygain
Tailtwister and HAM-IV rotors which should effectively give me the
equivalent of #10 solid copper wire to pins 5 and 6.
However, I am getting intermittent rotation on the two rotors particularly
in a breeze. I believe the problem is still not enough voltage to the motor
to start rotation.
I am looking for alternate solutions to get some more voltage out to the
rotor motors. Many years ago, I saw K5RC use a variac to actually step up
the input voltage to the rotor boxes to 130 or 140 volts on some very long
runs to rotors. I would think that it would also be possible to increase the
voltage to the rotor motors using a larger secondary transformer output
voltage (48 to 50 volts) or to parallel two 24 volt transformers (parallel
the inputs and series their outputs) to generate a higher voltage from the
control box.
I would be interested in knowing if others have similar problems, have tried
any of these solutions, have cured the problem, or have suggestions on what
will work for me. I would appreciate any experience from other operators who
have conquered long rotor runs.
73
Gary W5FI
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