Might not the rotor control cable act as an antenna and pick up RF in the
near field of the transmitting antenna? Depending on the extant conditions
might this not be enough to cause some problem? Proper routing should
minimize this but not all installations end up optimal.
Patrick NJ5G
-----Original Message-----
From: Ian White
Sent: Friday, December 05, 2014 2:44 AM
To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Choking on chokes
Just had a thought. Do I need to choke my rotator control cable too? 73,
David, AA9G
You certainly shouldn't need to do that.
Let's think about this, because RF current on a rotator control cable can't
just appear out of nowhere. The defining feature of current is that it must
have come *from* somewhere and be flowing *to* somewhere else... so where
would this unwanted current be coming from?
The only possible source of RF current is at the Yagi feedpoint, where a
design error or a bad choice of balun might cause unwanted common-mode
current to flow along the feedline, the boom and the mast... so the
feedpoint is also where the solution must be found. Choking the rotator
cable would only be treating a symptom, while ignoring the much bigger root
cause.
[Afterthought: another potential cause of common-mode current on the rotator
cable could be a complete break in the shield of the coax feedline, forcing
RF currents to find a return path outside of the coax. But once again the
rotator cable would only be a symptom, not the root cause.]
I guess the real point is that we can work out quite a lot by standing still
and taking a moment to think.
73 from Ian GM3SEK
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