[TowerTalk] TX2

[Stan or Patricia Griffiths]

Ronald Anderson wrote:

> Well my TX2 lost it's indicator reading, I am assuming that the pot in the
> top end has gone.
> figures always the hardest place to get too. :-)    Well anyone got any
> ideas how to tell direction from inside the house?  I have been thinking
> about putting mirror outside and maybe doing it that way.  Any idea's what
> I can do in the mean time, until I can get someone to climb the tower?
>
> Has anyone experimented with running a hundred feet of masting so that the
> rotator can remain
> on the ground.  I have a 100 ft self support tower, SSVN.
>
> Ron WA9PAM
>

Hi Ron,

I have a suggestion but it still requires someone climbing the tower.  They
don't have to deal with the rotator to implement this suggestion, however.

You say your antenna is installed on a free standing tower.  I assume this
means no obstructions all around the tower clear to the ground.  No wire
antennas or any thing else, like side mounted antennas or anything.  If so,
you can drop a string to the ground that is tied out on the boom several feet
from the tower.  Weight the bottom end of the string with a wrench or
something.  As the beam rotates, the weighted string travels around the tower
with it.  You can watch it from the ground.

If you want to get fancy, you can have the string wind around the mast and
with a series of pulleys, you can have the string move about 6 inches from end
to end as the beam goes through 360 degrees.  The bottom end of the string can
be routed inside of the shack and you can have it move up and down the wall as
the beam turns.  I did this as a kid, wrote NESW on the wall, and used an
alligator clip clipped to the string as an easily calibrated pointer.  When
you have zero budget for ham radio, you can think of all sorts of ways to do
stuff.

Stan  w7ni@teleport.com


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