HAM rotator questions

K7LXC at aol.com K7LXC at aol.com
Tue Feb 6 13:01:13 EST 1996 

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Wayne, you recently said
=0D
>I recently purchased the subject rotator for light duty use
>and am in the process of fixing it up.  It works fine and
>all of the voltages check out per the Hygain manual.  I have
>some questions I'd like to pose to the gurus.
=0D

First of all, congratulations on deciding to refurb it rather
than just put it up; you've just dodged one bullet.
1.  The grease manufacturer isn't too relevant as long as the
grease meets the temp criteria. Call Hy-Gain customer service
and I think they'll send you some.
2. You can't do anything to improve the reliability of the
terminal strip. DO NOT put any RTV or other substance over
the terminal strip as it'll just get permanently gummed up.
If you want to go to the trouble of upgrading to the new
Hy-Gain pigtail and connector, contact the factory. Let them
do it.
3. The Belden cable is to minimize voltage drop to the
rotator and there isn't any specified connector (see #2
above.)
4. Which Mother Nature are you trying to keep out?  Rain, RF,
lightning or what?  Since the control cable connections are
under the rotator, that is usually sufficient to keep rain
out.  Other Mother Natures require different fixes.
Craig at C.A.T.S. in Ohio is your guy for parts, advice or
repairs - give him a call.
BTW, the best secret kept deal in ham radio is the fact that
the Hy-Gain factory will refurb your rotator for a flat fee.
A HAM IV runs $75.00 and they'll replace anything that is
damaged - all for 75 bucks.  While its there, you can have
them put in the new connector pigtail, etc.
=0D
73, Steve  K7LXC
=0D
     "Up The Tower"  now appears in CQ Contest magazine
=0D
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>From Del Seay <seay at alaska.net>  Tue Feb  6 17:04:26 1996
From: Del Seay <seay at alaska.net> (Del Seay)
Date: Tue, 06 Feb 1996 09:04:26 -0800
Subject: [Fwd: Surge suppressors for balanced feeders (summary)]
Message-ID: <31178A1A.3EA9 at alaska.net>

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Next time you're passing by an AM-Broadcast transmitter site, walk
over to the tower and look at the protection used.
All it is is a pointed strap of copper or brass that has a small gap
to the feed. This gap is wide enough to not allow rf to jump, but narrow
enough to allow higher voltages to jump. The strap is then bonded
to the grounding system. Of course you would need two, one for each
feed conductor.

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Subject: Surge suppressors for balanced feeders (summary)
Date: Tue, 06 Feb 1996 12:11:56 EST
From: Pete Soper <psoper at encore.com>
Reply-To: Pete Soper <psoper at encore.com>
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Most folks pointed me toward ICE. Their model 309 (low-med power, $44) or 
309H (high power, $72 in '94) 300-600 ohm balanced line suppressor is
available direct from ICE at 800-423-2666.

It doesn't appear that Polyphaser has anything, but email to one of
their consultants is pending and to see if there is something not listed
in their catalog. 

One gentleman suggested the "pair of sparkplugs" setup. All other
considerations aside, I don't trust myself to set the gap properly!

Knife switches are "out there", somewhere :-)

Jerry's comments about what comes in the shack vs stays outside gets to
the heart of some hard thinking I've been doing since building the 
ground window "inside". If it weren't for the balanced feeders, this
would all be so much easier. But this is for the next message.

Thanks to:

Patrick WB9IQI
Ken WM2C/6
Wade W0EJ
Gene K7DBV
Pete N4ZR
Waldek, DL7ANQ SO6ANQ
Jerry W4UKU


Regards,
Pete
KS4XG


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>From flanders at GroupZ.net (Jerry Flanders)  Tue Feb  6 18:31:52 1996
From: flanders at GroupZ.net (Jerry Flanders) (Jerry Flanders)
Date: Tue, 06 Feb 1996 13:31:52 -0500
Subject: Surge suppressors for balanced feeders...

>At 10:43 AM 2/6/96 -0500, you wrote:
>(stuff deleted)
>>The outside switching box
>>uses 3 relays and lets me select any of 7 antennas (plus grounding them when
>>power off).
>>
>....  But 3 relays choosing among 7 antennas
>and grounding the unselected ones to boot -- wow.  ...
>========================================================================

Sorry - I screwed up when I said the antennas were grounded when it is off.
I remember now that only the coax (center plus shield) going into the house
is grounded when I switch master power off. All the incoming lines from the
antennas have a small spark gap that I built onto their coax connectors
where they enter the box, and of course their shields are grounded already
as they enter the box. 

Incidentally, the Last relay in the "chain" is 4PDT, which provides the 8
output connections. You can control all this with common 3-wire #14 house
wire plus the shield of the coax for return.

Jerry W4UKU


>From Rob Shapiro <ND3A at cais.cais.com>  Wed Feb  7 01:50:56 1996
From: Rob Shapiro <ND3A at cais.cais.com> (Rob Shapiro)
Date: Tue,  6 Feb 96 17:50:56 PST
Subject: Switching Power Supply?
Message-ID: <Chameleon.4.01.2.960206180757.nd3a@>

Back in mid-December, I ordered a switching power from Tektris.  This supply is 
featured on page 70 of the December 1995 CQ magazine.  What I (and many 
others) are looking for is a reasonably priced switcher for a HF transceiver (22 amp 
range) that has a small profile, is lightweight and produces little, if any noise.  I 
ordered and tested a supply from Duracomm back in early October and found it had 
a severe noise emission problem.  I returned the unit and borrowed an Electro Auto 
switcher for my YB0/VK9X trip.  The unit worked fine but goes for approximately US$ 
300.

The supply I ordered from Tektris "went" for app. US$170.  I said went because 
when I called them yesterday to inquire about my order, I was told that the design for 
the supply was sold to Kenwood.  Kenwood was going to be developing a supply for 
the amateur community that will possibly fit all the criteria I stated previously.  I called 
Kenwood and finall spoke to someone in the sales department.  I was told that no 
info was currently available but that I would be contacted once it was available.  It will 
also be posted on Kenwood's web page.

I am posting this because I feel that hams on contest/dx peditions could make great 
use of this type of power supply, and that one produced by a ham manufacturer 
such as Kenwood would most likely not have the noise problems (or fewer) than one 
produced by the typical OEM.

73, Rob
------------------------------------------
Rob Shapiro - ND3A
Annandale, VA
Potomac Valley Radio Club
Internet: nd3a at cais.com
------------------------------------------

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