[TowerTalk] Looking for Remote Rotator Control Methods

[Jon Zaimes, AA1K]

George,
On a recent tower build we used 400 feet of 13-conductor sprinkler wire with five each of the no. 18 conductors paralleled (equivalent to no. 11) for the two motor leads, and the remaining three conductors for the sensor, buried from the shack to the tower. At the tower and shack ends we transitioned to heavy duty rotor cable (DXE CW1812OR) -- for a total length of about 485 feet. A Green Heron RT21D controller was used with a Prosistel PST71D Pro.rotor turning a 22' long 3" diameter chromemoly mast with a stack of JK yagis totaling about 44 sq ft of wind load.
On another install we had a garage with electric power about 100' from a 35' tower. The tower was about 600 feet from the ham shack. A Yaesu G-1000 rotor turning a hex beam was used with about 150' of rotor cable from top of tower to a Green Heron RT21 with Green Heron Everyware module added. The RT21 was about 550' from the shack, and flat panel antennas were used at each end since we had some trees intervening. A Green Heron Everyware base unit allows control of the RT21 from the shack computer. 
On my own towers (six of the eight have rotors) all are hardwired with a variety of cable -- whatever I could scrounge up cheap at the time, some 20-25 years ago. Even Cat5 cable, some Belden audio cable and others with conductors paralleled. A few even use various lengths of actual rotor cable. Total runs vary from 300 to 700 feet. Until recently all were HyGain Tailtwisters, and a couple of these used a "boost" transformer at the controller to kick up the voltage going to the brake by about 10 volts to compensate for any voltage drop in the long run. Starting capacitors were placed in a box at bottom of tower so those two wires weren't needed going  all the way to the shack. Now I have a couple of M2 OR2800 rotors and one Yaesu G1000. Rotor cables are all run inside the tower and simply laid on the ground. Some are buried for the last 80' to the house where there's lawn. I've never had any RFI issues, even with the series-fed 160 meter tower, which has large coaxial chokes at the base for isolation. Original controllers were HyGain on the T2X but now we have Green Heron RT21's on all of them.
At a previous QTH where I had collected an abundance of 1/2" CATV hardline from the local cable company, I used three runs of this to get the six conductors needed for rotor control. This was direct buried and worked well for 10 years till we moved.
If you know the voltage and current draw of your rotor, there are online tables and calculators for figuring the conductor size needed for a particular length.
73/Jon

Jon P. Zaimes, AA1K
Tower climber for hire
Felton, Delaware
http://www.aa1k.us/
Cell: 302-632-2353 

Reviews of AA1K tower work on eham website: http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/12922

Hug your favorite tower every day, and always stay connected to it. 

    On Tuesday, February 17, 2026 at 03:05:42 PM EST, George Collins <george.kc1v at gmail.com> wrote:   

 Hello,

Have put up a second tower that will be used just for HF antennas.  It's in
a nice location except for one problem: it's 500 feet away from my shack.
I'm looking for suggestions on how to deal with a very long rotator cable
run.  There is a barn with electricity a 100 feet from the tower where a
controller could be located.  I'm thinking that I could run light-gauge
control wires from the shack to a controller in the barn, thus avoiding the
large IR drop in the motor wires.  The difficulty I see with this
approach is the long run for the position indicator wires.  I think they
will likely pick up RF or other electrical noise.  Perhaps some type of
buffer or line driver could be used.

I would also consider just running heavy-conductor cable directly from the
shack to the tower, if affordable cable was available.  I think I would
still have to deal with long position-indicator lines.

 Perhaps a wireless solution may be the best method, but I would probably
need to copy someone else's design.  I am familiar with various
microcontrollers and SBCs, but I haven't done anything programming of WiFi
networks, etc.  I would like to use the typical Hy-Gain/CDR type controller
and I will probably use a HAM-IV rotator, although a Yaesu rotator is a
possibibly.  Making electrical modifications to the rotator or controller
is not a problem.

Any suggestions (other than moving the shack to the barn hi hi) will be
very much appreciated.

73,

George, KC1V
FN31
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