[TowerTalk] Quiet antenna rotators?

[Roger (K8RI)]

>I have a neighbor "commenting" (for now) about the noise of the Ham-IV
> rotator I am using. I have nothing to compare it to.

There is big difference between commenting and complaining.

Then there is the question of how high the rotator and how far from his/her 
house and what part of the house.

Yes, "in my experience" the Ham series of rotators are "noisier" than most 
others, but that said, I'd not consider them noisy. OTOH if you have a 30 or 
40' tower, 20 or 30 feet from your neighbor's bedroom window and it's that 
time of year where they sleep with the window open AND you operate a lot 
after they have gone to bed...I can see where they might notice.

Some people are sensitive to different noises.  Me? I dislike barking dogs 
with a passion. One neighbor had a kennle and raised Akitas.  Best behaved 
dogs in the neighborhood and they only barked when a stranger went in the 
yard. OTOH we had two others that just tied their dogs outside and they 
barked incessantly.

Wayyyy back when I was first licensed as a Novice, a friend an I took our 
rigs up to my folks trailer at Houghton Lake.  We set up a station and 
proceeded to make a bunch of contacts. We kept the volume down too as it was 
a quiet, vacation spot. Even with the volume down we heard one woman go into 
orbit as the sound of the CW was driving her nuts. They had to be a good 
hundred yards away, yet her screaming  at her husband (that's not a figure 
of speeh, she really was screaming at him) about "those kids" was louder to 
us than the CW in the trailer. Fortunately he was able to convince her we 
were setting a good example, and not making trouble like a lot of those our 
age were doing up there.  OTOH we had quite a few neighbors (including girls 
our age) stop by to listen and watch.   BTW this was in the evening, not 
late at night.

>
> So my question is are Ham-IV rotators considered "noisy" and if so are
> there quieter units on the market?

My Prosistel PST61 makes very little noise and it has no brake as it's a 
double worm gear drive. Even on the bench it's just noticable. OTOH you 
could purchase a number of Ham IVs for the price of the PST61. The alpha 
SPID is also a double worm gear drive and I'd guess it's fairly quiet as 
well and not quite as pricy as the PST61. It's been a long time, but IIRC 
the old Wilson sounded about the same as the Ham IV. That was one big, heavy 
rotator and looked like the big Yaesu. Whether they are the same or not, I 
don't know.

>
73

Roger (K8RI)
> Jamie Punderson, W2QO>
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