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Re: [TowerTalk] RMC 1000 Remote cable

To: barry@mxg.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] RMC 1000 Remote cable
From: "Rick Karlquist" <richard@karlquist.com>
Reply-to: richard@karlquist.com
Date: Thu, 3 Nov 2005 11:13:42 -0800 (PST)
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
Barry Merrill wrote:
> If you havent bought the Remote control, unit, yet, don't.
>
> I recommend that you will never want to be away from the
> base of the tower when it goes up or down, so you can
> stop it when something goes wrong.  And especially with
> the cable arms you get from US Tower, which are way too
> short.  I've had numerous wind gusts push the cable

I bought my tower from W6BH.  They replaced all the crankups
at the Table Mountain remote site for this reason.  They
needed to be cranked down in case of a wind storm, but it
was not possible to drive an hour and a half up to the mountain
to baby sit the tower.  They said they had a disaster on the
10 meter tower like you describe.  I noticed that one of the
coax arms I got was bent, like it had been in an "accident".

>
> And, what really frosted me for the $1000 option was
> the realization there was no feedback of the elevation
> of the tower, other than UP or DOWN.  I had originally
> thought I could use the remote to experiment with

UST built some of the HDX5130 towers with an elevation indicator.
Not sure how it worked.  Maybe they would sell you a retrofit
kit for a handsome price.

The control box is rather trivial, and you could easily build your
own.  But you don't want to use their design because it puts 120VAC
on your control cable, unnecessarily.  Someone posted on TT and
improved scheme with only low voltages, using some auxiliary relays
at the tower.

On and off, I have tried to brainstorm some sort of giant reel that
would wind up the coax as the tower cranks down and pay it out as it
goes up, all the time being under controlled tension.  I haven't hit
upon a scheme I really like.  You either need a rotary joint or
the coax has to double back on itself etc.  No obvious simple way
to do this or somebody would have done it already.

Rick N6RK


_______________________________________________

See: http://www.mscomputer.com  for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless Weather 
Stations", and lot's more.  Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any questions 
and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.

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