[TowerTalk] Long rotor run

[Steve Jones]

Ed-

Do you know the voltage actually reaching the rotor?  When I had this 
problem with a Yaesu rotor on a long run of cable, I added a "boost" AC 
transformer in series with the rotor line at the control head.  I used a 
5VAC filament transformer and wired secondary in series with the AC voltage 
to the rotor.  The first time I tried it, I had wired it backwards and the 
transformer "bucked" the rotor voltage, dropping it from 28V to 23V.  I 
reversed the leads which then added the 5V in "boost" mode.  So instead of 
28V leaving the shack I had 33V, which sagged to about 29-30 volts by the 
time it got through my long cable.  This was with standard 8-wire rotor 
cable so I saved the additional cost of running larger copper wire.  I just 
put the boost transformer in a small box and wired the 110V primary in 
parallel with the on/off switch for the rotor control.  The rotor worked 
fine this way for 10 years until my quad antenna came down.

73,

Steve
N6SJ

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ed Stallman" <n5dg at airmail.net>
To: <towertalk at contesting.com>
Sent: Monday, November 21, 2011 7:56 AM
Subject: [TowerTalk] Long rotor run


> I'm using a tail twister rotor 350 ft form the control box turning a
> 2 el quad, This problem reoccurs each winner when the wind blows
> ..Well in fact any time the wind blows .. With the wind 20 mph or
> more the rotor stalls , I did use # 14 wire on the motor leads and I
> have a junction box at the base of the tower were I change to regular
> rotor cable going up the tower .
>
> Heres my Question, can I put a Start or Run Capacitor in my junction
> box and still leave the capacitor in the control box ? would this
> help?  Another  thought was , could I replace the transformer in the
> control box to a little higher voltage ?
>
> Thanks Ed
>
> _______________________________________________
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> TowerTalk mailing list
> TowerTalk at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
>