[TowerTalk] HDX-589 rotor and coax arms and why I re-subscribed after many year hiatus

Mac libbysales at austin.rr.com
Sun Feb 17 13:44:56 EST 2019


While i have just responded to the first set of concerns and questions 
in this post, I want to close this thread and thank all of you who 
offered comments and ideas relative to using the 'CURVED' coax arms 
either buying new ones, or making my own with PVC fittings as well 
sizing and choice of power conductors for feeding the high current 
demands of the PP rotor, including using irrigation tubing as the medium 
for protecting the conductors and mag pulse counting cable. I think my 
choice to use the curved arms is best for me and my situation, even the 
good idea of laying out the coax heap into a large figure '8' is good 
but still in my instance the lawn mowing service still leaves me at risk.

I will add here a feature I use local to me is a hand held pendant with 
UP/DOWN buttons attached to a 120' 3 wire #18 SO cord allowing me to 
stand back and watch and control the raising/lowering and keep the 
circus pieces all moving without tangling up ropes cables and inverted V 
wires. I have lost count of the top stand-off arms i have bent with 
something getting caught. Its at this point i often think an AMP reading 
and alarm would work well monitoring the current demands on the 
raising/lowering motor.

As a point of humor and direct experience, i have and have used 1/2" 
RFS/Andrew super flex coax and its really impressive to see the 
corrugations go away and the cable sheath simply slide off from the 
copper jacket after the corrugations have been stretched smooth. But 
then the pesky task of replacing the coax is such a royal PIA.

I got some solid suggestions and direct experience from present users,  
thank each of you who took the time to respond and share these 
experiences and suggestions.

Warm regards:  mac/mc w5mc

On 2/9/2019 12:46 PM, Mac wrote:
>
> My HDX-589 tower was built to accept the old Hy Gain HDR-300 series 
> rotor scheme wherein the mast opening both in the top section and 
> rotor shelf were offset from the more often used center-line.
>
> I want and have made plans to use a SMALL old time Prop Pitch as the 
> rotor of choice.
>
> Does anyone have experience using the PP in this offset scheme. 
> Presently I can't run the tower sections out to a point where I can 
> check or install the PP, and even then I will want to drill out the 
> rotor plate mounting hole pattern to accept the PP mounting pattern to 
> keep the existing offset center alignment.
>
> I feel reasonably restricted to the PP as my rotor of choice due to my 
> antenna/s wind and weight loading.
>
> In this same question I have discovered these new to me CURVED 
> standoff arms offered by Chris KF7P, using these has a real appeal to 
> me V. using old time LOOP arms where when lowered I have a heap of 
> coax and control wiring mixed with Inverted V coax.
>
> When raising the tower it's a pretty much PIA and nearly always 
> requires 2 persons, myself and an understanding wife with a dog that 
> regrets being in the middle of the wire heap.
>
> What experiences can anyone share about using the curved arms and your 
> satisfaction levels. From all that I can see Chris seems to have 
> filled a real niche in our market needs and support.
>
> 73, mac/mc  w5mc
>
>
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