[TowerTalk] Rotor Cabling Query

[john at kk9a.com]

You can save a lot of heavy gauge wire by using a rotator without a  
brake. A brake adds controller complexity, it sometimes sticks and it  
requires two extra conductors. I believe only Hy-Gain uses brakes. I  
have not owned a rotator with a brake in decades and even my 60 ft  
boom antennas to not creep in the wind.

John KK9A

Lux, Jim wrote:


The brake draws 5A @ 24V according to the manual. You probably need 20V
or so minimum, so for 1400 ft (out and back), to keep the voltage drop
at 6V from the usual 26V transformer, the resistance has to be less than
about an ohm.  AWG10 is 1 ohm/1000 ft.  So you'd need what, AWG 8?
That's a pretty substantial expense.

The manual calls for AWG14 for 300 ft. You're running more than twice
that, so to keep the resistance the same, you need to go down 3 gauges
(3 gauges is twice the area/half the resistance). They call out AWG16
for most of the other wires than the common and brake. (The motor draws
2.25A)


Someone probably makes a suitable interface (Green Heron?).