[TowerTalk] Wireless tower direction indicator?

[scottw3tx at verizon.net]

Hello Jari. 

An elegant and cost effective solution for you would be to use a magnetic pulse counter and a green heron rt21 controller. 

Basically you mount two llittle magnets on an arm screwed unto the output shaft of your ac or dc motor (that turns the gearbox). And there is a magnetic pulse counter mounted to detect the "pulses". 

I can send you pictures of how I do this. The mag spinner kits cost less than $40 US. 

Best regards, 
Scott W3TX
814-881-9258

On Jan 31, 2011, at 3:44 AM, Jari Jussila <jari.jussila at oh2bu.pp.fi> wrote:

> 
> 
> I have a rotatable tower some 40m away from my ham shack. The old, 
> faithful tower rotator was hit in lighting and the potentiometer 
> telling the direction of my antennas was burned. The rotator being an 
> old, industrial model, the factory told me that there's no such 
> potentiometers available any more .......
> 
> Now ....
> 
> Does anybody know, if there are (commercial), potentiometerless 
> wireless (tower) direction indicators available in the market?
> 
> 1) With "potentiometerless" I mean, that the direction should come 
> not from a potentiometer at the base of the tower but with some other 
> means. Eg. a electronic compass at the end of a one meter stick 
> assembled horizontally on one of the tower diagonals a couple of 
> meters above the ground.
> 
> 2) With "wireless" I mean, that the electronic compass - or whatever 
> device - should transmit the direction by WLAN from the tower to the 
> ham shack to a separate display to directly to a computer having WLAN.
> 
> I hope I could describe the need good enough. I'm looking for a easy 
> plug-and-play-system, easy to assemble, easy to use and reliable. And 
> getting rid of  some cables.
> 
> There's 230 volts available at the base of the tower.
> 
> Any ideas?
> 
> 
> Jari, OH2BU
> 
> 
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