Topband: motorized matching caps

[Wayne Kline]

Who say's Ham radio is DEAD ?  The fiddling ,building, Experimenting IMO is a big part of  Amateur Radio.  In today's throw away society , it's a bigger challenge to explore or tweak a unit  or a system   That's why antennas are so intriguing , because no two installs are exactly the same.  You sound like me Ron..." I found an old Broken car  power antenna" HAHAAHAH I think I my have one laying in my,, you never know my need that pile !!!  73's Wayne W3EA 
 > Date: Thu, 15 Dec 2011 05:23:41 -0800
> From: ron.e.spencer at gmail.com
> To: topband at contesting.com
> Subject: Topband: motorized matching caps
> 
> I recently increased the height of the tower I shunt feed for 160 to 
> 105'. Presently no antennas on the top only a bit of mast out the top. 
> The 2:1 BW is quite narrow so I decided to try to motorize one of the 
> caps in the omega match. First I used large air variables to get a 
> match. Then measured and found I had a vacuum variable that could be 
> used which was great because they take more "rotation" of the shaft to 
> change capacitance vs the air variables.
> 
> I was trying to decide what motor to use and was digging around "stuff" 
> I had. I found an old broken car power antenna. Opening it I found it 
> had a quite large motor, 12V of course. I used the large "wheel" that 
> the plastic cable to raise and lower the mast was wound on to adapt to 
> the capacitor. Using the large wheel gave me a slower rotation which 
> turned out to be the perfect speed. Its fast but again, with the vacuum 
> variable it takes more movement so it all turned out well. And, best 
> part, the motor and gearing was FREE!
> 
> 73
> Ron   N4XD
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