[Towertalk] RD1800

[Jim White]

The fact that it is a cylinder versus a bell makes me wonder if it will
still slide into my tower oin the diagonal like the T2X just barely making
it does....if, it is larger in diameter is it shorter in height - or - is it
necessary to cripple a diagonal brace to make it fit?

OJ


----- Original Message -----
From: <KI7WX@aol.com>
To: <TowerTalk@contesting.com>
Sent: Sunday, May 12, 2002 3:44 PM
Subject: [Towertalk] RD1800


>
> Craig does have a winner on his hands. Nice rotator and well worth a look
for folks that are tired of rebuilding T2X's.
>
> 1) A note about installation. The RD1800 is a cylinder shape and there is
no easy way to grip it for hauling up the tower. In the first one I had
hands on, the rotor came with a screw eye that is inserted into the top of
the rotor. That eye lets you attach your pull rope to the rotor to haul it
up. Looked like a good idea.
>
> Be aware that when items are hauled up a tower on a rope they will often
rotate. If a screw-eye attachment point rotates the wrong way you might find
a rotor dropping away from your haul rope at ~9.9 m/s^2.
>
> 2) On N6RO's initial RD1800 we had a problem with a little nylon gear that
drives the indicator potentiometer slipping on it's shaft. When that gear
slips the rotor still rotates, but you don't see any evidence of it on the
indicator box. Craig is going to change that design, but if your rotor has
this little gear simply press fit to the shaft (intial design), you might
want to modify it before installation. We used some super glue to fix Ken's
on the tower and so far that's held, but I doubt that it'll be a permanent
fix.
>
> 3) For use in side mount applications - the footprint of the RD1800 is a
bit wider than the M2-Orion, T2X, and Yaesu rotors. On some swinging gate
type antenna mounts the rotor won't fit properly and you'll need to make
some spacer blocks to get everything to fit.
>
> Such is life with rotors...I'd still buy the RD1800 in a heartbeat and am
looking forward to seeing how they hold up in use.
>
> Mark
> KI7WX
>
>
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