[TowerTalk] New Tail Twister Rotator

[jcowens1 at comcast.net]

Ken: 



I had a tail twister (still have it) up with a triple stack mono group on 20, 15 and 10 for many years and it did a great job. My tower blew down in 2004 with 3 beams on it and the top section of the tower and antennas ended up in a tree. Destroyed one antenna, and mangled the other 2. The TT did a great job during all of this and I believe (never checked it out yet) it survived the fall (no physical damage evident). 



I ended up buying a used US Tower 72ft motor driven tower with a Hygain TH-11, Force 12EF180C (85' long 80M rotatatable dipole) and 2 el 40M beam on it and a Msquare 2800 rotator driving it all. That is a lot of antenna wind load. I put up the tower with the same antennas and rotator on it at my QTH, and took off the 80M  dipole a few years back after getting my 80M DXCC. The rotator has been strong and reliable sonce the new installation for 8 y ears now and for at least the same number of  years at its previous location. They advise against pinning the mast to the rotator (voids the warrantee and may break the rotator). If you are careful to secure the mast to rotator bolts in the proper sequence and very tightly, it is rare that it will slip. If it only slips a little bit, you re-index the rotator display and life goes on. Major slips might require slipping it back in place and re-tightening things (base bolts first and th en the mast bolts last). 



I am a true believer in the Orion (or Msquare if you wish) 2800 rotator and would buy another, although I can't imagine this one ever breaking or failing. Their customer service is superb. 





John Owens -  N7TK 

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