[RTTY] Happy Ending to the Stuck Beam :-)

[Ed]

On Wed, 23 Mar 2011 14:07:22 -0500
Dick <aa5vu at att.net> wrote:

> First, I want to thank all that offered tips on how to unstick a beam 
> stuck in the wrong direction.  The short version of the long
> shaggy-dog story is the beam now turns and works as good as it ever
> did!
> 
> I got up this morning and ran out of excuses for going up the tower
> to ohm out the pins on the connector installed just below the Ham IV
> rotator.  The reason the beam would not turn was very obvious from
> the ground tests outlined in the Ham IV users manual.  The orange
> wire (terminal #8) to the motor winding  was open. The problem has
> been finding out why and where it is open.
> 
> This morning I got out the climbing belt, arranged the tools need and
> got my courage in sync to go up the tower again. Yes, I am too old
> for this kind of fun.  To get some slack in the bundle of coax and
> rotor cable I pulled the excess out from under the deck (where the
> snakes and other critters live) and guess what?
> 
> Some critter had been chewing on the rotor cable and there were gnaw
> marks all around the outer casing.  I peel it back and the he had
> chewed the orange wire apart and almost got through the white
> (ground) wire. I guess it did not taste as good as he expected
> because the other wires were not damaged.  I soldered in a orange
> jumper and sealed the whole mess.  Reconnected the Ham IV Control
> unit (with a new lamp) and it lives.  The indictor pointed due West
> (where it had been stuck) and ham happiness was watching the pointer
> and beam move around to North East!
> 
> End of shaggy-dog stuck beam story.  It Lives!
> 
> 73 Dick AA5VU
>


Good deal Dick, at your "advanced" age your wife may have needed to
call the fire dept to get you off the tower.

Ed W3NR

My kids now say I'm older than dirt.