[TowerTalk] AlfaSpid web site and the art of motorcycle maintenance.

[Jay Terleski]

Dear TTalk Readers,

I have been told by a number of friends that the TTalk reflector was 
once again active with Prosistel/ Alfaspid bashing.
As many of you know I am the importer of Prosistel from Italy. We took 
over from the previous importer who shall remain nameless and I 
personally got back money many of you spend with him, as well as 
fullfilled orders that he "took" but did not supply product. Many of you 
have thanked us.  And I must say Gianni the owner of Prosistel went way 
above the normal and shipped rotators to those who got burnt. He is 
still owed lots of money from the other guy.  The point is is we took 
extraordinary steps to salvage the name of Prosistel.

So what....you say "What are you doing for me lately"

I have imported hundreds of these rotators now and we service them here 
in this country.  As someone said.  W5LL I think. "Jay doesn't stock 
parts.....wrong."  And we repair the controllers and always have here in 
the good old USA.  Controllers very seldom have any problems.
We have pots in stock (by far the main failure mode) and you can buy 
pots on-line at www.mouser.com. It's no big deal. I even have found a 
sealed pot that can be put inside for extreme environments that we now 
are supplying in the 2006 units we just ordered.

There have been a couple of bolt/hole/sealing issues on the PST61 but 
that was solved.  Plus the manufacturer and I squarely stand behind the 
products 2 year warranty and service after the fact.  Most of you 
realize that all rotators with pots will be susceptable to lighting 
failures, I have several 500 ohm pots for my Hygain rotators, and also 
steel gears on the wall for the gear problems of these rotators. Didn't 
we all learn how to play with ball bearings growing up fixing these 
rotators over our lifetimes.

This rotator has been selected, by rigorous tested,  by the US Navy and 
approved for shipboard use. This means salt water spray/fog testing, 
immursion test, and RFI test (they cannot leak RF) and also an explosion 
test. Yup. Every other rotator was blown apart but the Prosistel.  I 
will scan the brochure and place it online for you to read soon look for 
it in the Prosistel area of my webpage.  I am just back from a meeting 
with the Navy and have received approval to post this brochure on-line. 
  With their help were rolling out the next generation of Prosistels for 
the military. Some of the improvements will trickle down to the ham 
rotator. They don't rust - they are made of Aluminum housings.  The new 
castings are fabulous.  The clamp is hardened steel and plated with an 
anti corrosion process.

I won't get into the reliability issues of Alfa Spid but to just say I 
have replaced many of them and the guys were not to happy with the 
response they got from Alfa Spid reps. One replacement is going on now, 
where they don't even return the guys calls for help. I have pictures to 
prove my point. Nuff of that.

Website,  Guilty.

OK I did it! Gianni at Prosistel had nothing to do with it. Here's how 
it happened. Scott (QTH.com) called Alfaspid up and said the domain was 
for sale ($9.95). They told him they didn't want it.  He called me and 
asked me if I wanted it and I said hey why not. Could be worth 
something. I had this site for 2 years now, is it just now you noticed? 
  If AlfaSpid wants it I will sell it to them. Just call me up boys. 
Lets make a deal.

I will take the link down and put something else there. Maybe a picture 
of a broken Spid will do.  8o)  Just kidding..........

Future Products....and the future of Prositel

There are some neat things coming from Italy. The new D box controller 
is the cats meow.  Check it out.
The software is incredible too.

I have asked and Dan has accepted, so it's official: AN Wirless is also 
my 50% partner on the ham rotators, which we're bringing into the 
country in larger and larger containers and he has the warehousing 
facilities to stock and ship them. This means the business is secure and 
growing. And when I retire, Dan will be fully 100% able to run the 
business and support you. Dan is only 30 years old, and his tower 
business is booming. So he will be around for a long time and so will 
Prositel.

Ethics and the Law

Prosistel is CE and FCC Class B and Industry Canada certified. The 
ASpids do not have the FCC class B certification.  It was clear in the 
QST review they were not. Why would you support them? They are probably 
operating illegally in the US. I think it is time to demand that the FCC 
do something.  We took the time and money to obey the law.  Now they 
finally announce they are CE mark compliant. Big deal.  Still not legal 
in Canada and the USA as I and my testing lab assures me.  And did they 
really turn the rotator when they tested. I would bet now. Most of these 
labs don't care.  You can fool them.  Use a real lab and they make have 
a functioning unit on the table.  Last I saw there were lots of 
complaints about widband motor noise from the Spids.

Well that's the story. I am not on this reflector due to business issues 
and no time left. But as a big original tower talk supporter and 
contributor please understand I had no ill intent in buying the domain 
name, except  to have some fun with the website. It was not hijacked, 
and Alfaspid had first crack at it.

So I am sorry and will move it to be something less controversial as 
soon as I can. Don't throw out Prosistel in your consideration of 
quality rotators due to my actions.  OK?

Thanks for all those who support us and we look forward to fair and 
LEGAL competition from the Polish rotator. Hey my last name is Terleski too!

The real bottom line is, the number of dis-satisfied Prosistel users far 
underweighs the competition. At Dayton we truthfully tell our customers 
what the various Prosistel units will turn and won't turn. We don't 
change our story months later.

Regards,
Jay Terleski



-- 
Jay Terleski
Array Solutions
972 203 2008
Military Communications Systems, Phased Arrays, RF Switches, Antennas & 
Towers
http://www.arraysolutions.com