Topband: Shunt fed tower

[John Harden]

I've been reading all of the posts about the 160 shunt feeds...

I have a 100 foot 45G tower festooned with monobanders from 80 - 10 
meters. Because of the monobanders my 4-wire cage is only 30 feet high. 
The series capacitor is a 1000 pfd vacuum variable and the shunt 
capacitor is 2000 pfd (This was necessary to get a good swr). Even with 
the 4 wire cage the bandwidth is not very wide.

However I placed a 12 VDC, 1 RPM motor on the shunt capacitor and I can 
tune it from the shack remotely. The motor needs to be 1 RPM so you can 
tune accurately. I got it from Digi-Key and you reverse directions by 
simply changing the polarity with a DPDT toggle switch. It is made by 
Cramer in CT.  It is # CRA201-ND.

A complicated arrangement with limit switches is not necessary. Once you 
find the correct point on the rotation you simply move around that point 
to do the tuning. 12 VDC should be applied with a SPST normally open, 
push-button switch.

73,

John, W4NU