hey all,

I have a limited space on my 40x80 property for an antenna.

originally I had a G5RV with one leg bent 90 degrees about halfway because it ran into the back fence property line.

the chimney that was holding up its mast fell apart and I had to remove it.

my house occupies most of the back end of the property and right behind that are 2 tall oak trees.

one tree has a pulley on a limb about 20ft from the rear lot line and at the side lot line that i can hoist something up on. (I had a tree climber install it when he was doing my pruning)

I *could* just hoist the center of the G5RV about 32' up and use that again but i was wondering if there is another antenna design that would work better than that G5RV.  I thought of a vertical but ground radials would be very limited to a couple directions along side the house side and back. no my neighbors wont let me install radials either. they are cool but i think they see me as a mad scientist with all these antennas and stuff.  (the G5RV mast had a discone on top, a tv antenna halfway up and a FM broadcast beam, and next to it was a Antron 99 tuned for 10M)

I always wondered if all that affected the G5RV at all. Now I'll put a mast on the back of the house probably, and a rotor for all those. The Antron never really worked better than the G5RV on 10M as far as I could tell, so I may just leave that one out.

So, any suggestions, vertical, keep the G5RV or run something else that can benefit from the extra height?

I saw this one, says it works on 160M - 10M, (but not 6M) interesting:
http://www.kr1st.com/hfcoath.htm?

I also wonder if the ladder line can be smaller than what he made?

-chris

I hear ya, but one correction, I do not want to turn a big beam antenna not sure where that came into it. TV antenna and maybe very small beams, nothing big. I did not know the prop pitch units cost thousands. I'm looking at low hundreds as a max and even that may have to wait.

You say you're not sure what else I want to hear? Well as Rumsfeld famously (and stupidly) said, "I dont know what I dont know" and who knows what I might learn about ways to approach this. I do get it, I can buy a cheapo CM rotor and take my chances it will hold together, and I wont know where its pointing very well.

Also, this is a DIY hobby and ALL we're talking about is a waterproof geared motor with a brake and some kind of potentiometer for location feedback. I would not have been surprised to hear that someone repurposed something (like the prop pitch unit idea) that is cheap and strong and commonly available. Maybe we still will. Its not a rocket science device.

Well, the OP (that would be myself) is looking for two things, quality build, and a reliable position indication.

I may after learning all the options, get the cheapo CM and see, but still want to find out all the options first. Its still way too cold out to go installing a mast on the roof and a rotor etc anyway.   

At any rate one thing that was not offered up here (I dont recall), is a prop-pitch conversion rotor. THAT is interesting, VERY high quality but somewhat costly and must be converted correctly. But still something to keep my eye open for.

But I dont think they KNOW where it is, it estimates by timing movemnet. This is unacceptable to me, not to mention the cheapo construction. I know I can go over to reviews section, but I'll ask here, whats a good QUALITY hham rotor that I could look for used, that also knows where it is?  I have no idea what models are popular and come up used. I'm guessing there are hams who upgrade due to upsizing the array and would sell the smaller unit. I probably cant afford new, but used, probably. Just need some popular models to look at.   

What I would like most is a rotor that tells me where it is at all times, not guess. Which small ham rotors should I look for buying used? Something reliable but not a budget breaker.

So, back on track, while we wait for a DIY person top throw in here, whats are some good ham rotors that are accurate and reliable to look for used perhaps?  Maybe thats the way to go... I just need some models that have good track records...

Yeah I WISH this wasnt the case but...  the reviews I saw were on Amazon and other non-Ham places, unfortunately. Here are some excerpts:

http://www.amazon.com/RCA-VH126N-Antenna-Rotator-Remote/product-reviews/B002GSG0CG/ref=cm_cr_pr_btm_link_next_2?ie=UTF8&pageNumber=2&showViewpoints=0


After the installation, I plugged it in and fliped the power switch and nothing happened. After confirming I had power to my receptical, I took the cover off the control box. One wire was not soldered to the power switch, so I got out my soldering iron and made the connection. The control box works fine now, but the remote control doesn't work.

Seen the reviews were not to bad so i bought it. If you notice the Phillips brand recieved very bad reviews but the item looks exactly the same. Both are made in China. I ordered the first one (RCA)and it came quickly, and set up easily. You will be told to do a 360 degree test before installing antenna to make sure it goes around.. This should have been my clue about reliability. I did the test and it worked. Put it up on the mast, installed the antenna and then took it to 360 degrees again. Thats where it stayed. The motor would not bring the rotator back. I took it off the roof and tested it without an antenna. Still stuck, no sound, nothing. I ended up having to send it back (KEEP THE BOX).. The good news is that amazon returns had me another one within one day and they were awesome do deal with. I asked for a replacement.
When I got the new one and opened the box, i ended up opening the trap door where the wiring connects to the rotator. The first thing i noticed is one of the wires broke off that comes from the motor. It needed to be resoldered on. What kind of quality is that. I did the 360 degree test and made sure it went around once. Thats where dejavu came in. It locked in place and wouldnt go the other way. I could hear the motor humming but it would not move. I had to look up online the RCA customer service (which is audiovox in NY). The representitive actually asked me how I knew it wasnt turning. After i explained to him it doesnt go the other way and is stuck, i was told that it doesnt sound like that is supposed to happen. Basically they were useless. I ended up taking the motor out and pulling everything apart. It appears the motor is mounted a little off so the gears are not matching correctly. I ended up drilling out the motor mounting holes a little bigger so i could manually move the motor around as i tightened the screws and got the motor gear to match better. So far it goes back and forth now without issue, but if i had a choice to do it all over, DONT BUY THIS BRAND OR ANYTHING THAT LOOKS LIKE IT THAT SAYS MADE IN CHINA IN FINE PRINT.

I have bought two of these units in the past 14 months. The first unit worked fine for just at 13 months, then locked up. The rotator unit went to 00 after I hit the "INIT" button - and never moved again. Just outside the warranty - naturally.

I only used the device during the first few weeks to set the best signal strength, after that - I did not touch it again for many months. The only reason I used the rotator again after about 6 months was to adjust it after I had replaced the coax lead in wires. I got the unit set up - great signals etc. When I went to store the new setting - I hit "INIT" instead of "MEMORY". This is THE largest failure - poorest design with the unit. The INIT causes the antenna to go to 00 - while the base goes to 36 and count down - trying to send the rotor to 00 the whole time. If the INIT button is allowed to be used - why does it lock the unit at 00 never to move again? The rotator now just hums when you send it signals. That button ought to have a lock on it so as to confirm you really want to "INIT".

I bought the second unit once the first unit locked up, I installed it yesterday - was tuning it this afternoon - and again - hit the #^$*#@ "INIT" button by accident - and now this NEW unit is locked up. It lasted all of ONE day.

Made in china - what quality.... Do NOT buy this unit unless you need a new paper weight. RCA is not what it used to be and there are no Made in America products to do this anymore.

Now I get to mess with "Audiovox" to go through all the expense of sending dead weight in for warranty on another piece of junk. Thank goodness for USPS if it fits it ships....

Nothing wrong with Amazon nor the company that shipped it - the unit is just junk.

Thanks but these Chinese junkers have a bad rep. Frozen / broken gears, water ingress, and they get out of alignment almost immediately. No thanks. I'd rather go manual, or build something, or *maybe* buy a good used rotor.

You know, I had similar ideas. I have two choices, a mast on the house, or a standoff mast on one of my 2 70' Oaks behind the house where I could get much higher without a mast or tower (which I have to be careful, a mast ok a tower I think needs permitting, technically) A tree doesnt, and its already there!  But the rotor would then need to be electric. Also, I would either have to have long standoffs bolted to the trunk with SS lags, or sacrifice some of the swing (and make some kind of stops). A mast on the house could be 360 degrees. How tall could a unsupported mast be anyway? The Roof edge is about 8' up where it could be bolted. My G5RV needs just over 30' in the center I wonder is a small top-mast could support that with some kind of swivel above? And then would the G5RV wires interfere? Or I could use a lighter mast there on the southeast corner just for G5RV support, and the rear peak, about 15' up could support a mast for the TV and small beams etc, with a mechanical/manual rotator? Would that be a mast within the main support mast? bearings?

hi all, I need to rotate my OTA TV antenna and FM broadcast, and might wish to add 2m beam as well. Small array. I was thinking about a standard TV rotator but un like the old ones from Tenna Rotor etc which were old school reliable, this new stuff is hit-or-miss toy-grade crap from China. Sad but true - have researched all the reviews and no other conclusion can be reached. I dont totally trust an old rotator from ebay or whatever, so then I realized these are not rocket science! I could make a waterproof housing with bearings and some kind of DC motor, but would have to work out a reliable positioning mechanism.

Anyone done this for a project?

National Grid is all over the map because they scooped up numerous utilities. Here in RI they were very slow and inefficient at responding to widespread power outages after hurricane Irene. There was a hue and cry about that and they promised to improve. Between Irene and Sandy, they created a response plan that was totally revamped. It involved placing liaisons with each police/city authority and pairing tree removal with line crews, and working that under a triage system. The improvement was dramatic and even the web site map was much more accurate after Sandy. Power was restored by Friday everywhere.

I signed onto the web site and found a nice page to report the broken street light. Got a confirmation email immediately. Then a response a few hours later. The response said I had failed to change the region from upstate NY to RI, and to re-enter. So I signed on, changed to RI, and filed the street light report. Nothing. No automated response OR human response. I had gotten both from NY.

I have National Grid gas as well, which like the electric was a bought utility. The elec company has online account info, easy bill pay and all that. The gas doesnt despite years of web promises to get them under one umbrella. Go figure.

So it appears National Grid is good at buying utilities, but operates them as a separate entity with some having better management than others. I was stunned that the NY/NJ power repairs were so slow and inefficient compared to our own. You'd think the changes they made for us would have been implemented at all their units, why not?

is there no way to edit my original post?  I wanted to add [SOLVED] to the title and cant do it...

Found it.    We have no radio club nearby that I know of but my colleague at work KO1H is president of the semi-active RI wire antenna club and very active ham, and he suggested that street lights will cycle like that. BINGO.

I set my car AM radio to a nonstation and was driving around to establish a perimeter. I got the North-South done (about 2000' total span) and headed to the next street over and the house behind mine had a flickering street light on the pole. I parked under it and sure enough when it cycled the radio went crazy for about half a minute until it gave up trying to start.

Time to call the power company...

what a relief!

OK it was not active during the day today, but now at 7pm I turned on the radio, and it's back. Interesting!

Well I just got up (I work nights and listen on my nights off), and no there is no QRM at the moment that I can recieve.

Thanks for the DF tip, my handheld wasnt much help last night as I dont know ehere to point it, although it has a ferrite bar inside so I guess that means the null is off each end? (Degen 1103)

I hope I can find this!