George,
I'm expecting the Maunder Minimum any day now and want enough power to stave off the inevitable fade into the ether .  . .

I can't believe it - finally 10 & 12M were open yesterday for the first time since last winter, and 12M was really good.   Within 20 minutes I worked RI1FJ near the North Pole, RI1ANF near the South Pole, Japan, South America, Europe and central Asia.  I'd purchased a PW1 amp this past March and never had a chance to use it on 10 & 12M.  When I saw all the signals on my spectrum scope it was like sighting land after many months at sea.  I had to run and get some tools to clip the D18 diode on my Icom PW1 to enable 10 & 12M.  I should have clipped the darn diode some time when the bands were dead because my hand was shaking watching all those blips on the spectrum - not a good time to be attempting to remove that tiny diode!

I had the same thing happen to my Hy Gain T2X rotor system.  One morning when I turned it  on it was off by exactly 90 degrees.  The procedure used to analyze my problem may apply to your situation.  I measured the resistance values coming back on the rotor cable to determine if the position feedback matched the actual antenna heading.  If they DO NOT match - then you may have a mechanical failure within the rotor if you are sure that your mast has not turned on the antenna or rotor.  If the feedback resistance values DO match the physical position of the antenna, which they did luckily in my situation - then the control unit has lost its calibration.  In my case, the normal calibration procedure of rotating the antenna between the CCW and CW limits and setting the center of rotation worked and got the controller indication back into agreement with the actual physical position of the antenna.  Good luck and I know how you feel when faced with the possibility of maybe having to take down your antenna and rotor.

Doug
WA0CRI

Things were NOT less crazy on on CW - in fact they were disgusting and an insult to the hobby.  9M0L was on 18M CW this afternoon and the intentional QRM'ing and childishness was an embarrassemt to the hobby.  I just got back on the air after a 45 year QRT and I can't believe what has happened to the behavior on the bands since my last operations back in the 60's.  Most of the QRM seemed to be peaking on a 45 degree radial from my location - likely placing the source somewhere in Europe.

Doug
WA0CRI

Will,
"Hi-potting" is a static voltage test which checks, non-destructively, that the dielectric of coax or insulation on other types of conductors do not have microscopic defects which could contribute to current leakage between conductors.  The instrument itself is portable and about the size of a shoe box.  I worked for an industrial electrical contractor for many years and we pulled many miles of cable through buried conduits.  After each pull we would "hi-pot" all cables at a voltage just below the breakdown voltage to guarantee that no damage occurred during the pull, and also that there were no manufacturing defects in the cables.  In your case I would hi-pot your coax at about its maximum working voltage, i. e. 3700 volts for typical RG-213.  If you took your cable in to a contractor it would only take about 2 minutes to check it out.

Doug
WA0CRI

The only way to guarantee the integrity of your coax after the lightning strike would be to "hi-pot" the cable to make sure the dielectric has no carbon paths created by the electric potential of the strike.  Most electrical contractors have a hi-pot instrument and could probably test your cable for little or no cost.

Doug
WA0CRI

I'll answer my own question.  According to the people at Icom - add a "Y" connector to the CI-V port on the transceiver.  One cable goes to the PC and the other cable goes to the amplifier.  Maximize the baud rate to minimize bus collisions.

Has anybody interfaced Ham Radio Deluxe to an IC7700 driving a PW1 amp via the CI-V remote connection?  Do I have to add a "Y" connector on the back of the IC7700 and daisy chain the CI-V signal to the PW1 amp?  I currently control my IC7700 transceiver from HRD via my DigiMaster USB CT17 interface into the CI-V remote port on the IC7700.  But I'm considering adding a PW1 amp and it requires a CI-V connection to the same transceiver port.  How do I make the connection so HRD controls the transceiver and the transceiver controls the band selection on the PW1 amp?

Doug
WA0CRI

Joe,
Please e-mail me at WA0CRI@ARRL.NET and I'll give you more details.  But for now to clarify a couple things:

1)  The HDX55 is not only a crank-up, it is also a tilt-over tower.   I'm afraid of heights and there's no way I'm climbing anything more than a step ladder!  I installed my TH11 using only a step ladder via the procedure I described in the above thread.

2)  The six driven elements of the TH11 are a true log periodic dipole array.  There are no traps on any of the driven elements.  The traps are only on the three directors.  In addition, the TH11 has a reflector for 17M and 20M.  I'm overwhelmed by the performance of my TH11.  I've worked almost 190 countries in just 4 months with this antenna.  I run just 150 watts and often get thru DX pileups on the first try.  I couldn't be happier with this antenna.

Doug  - WA0CRI

I just completed the process you are about to tackle - installed a new TH11 on a newly installed HDX55 tower.  The performance of the TH11 and the crank-up tower are really impressive.  Worked about 190 countries in just 4 months.  Since you will be doing new construction think about the following:
1)  Pick the antenna location ASAP.  Keep in mind the TH11 has a 22 ft turning radius.  Now is the time to clear any trees that will interfer with the rotation or tilting operation. 

2)  The foundation for the HDX55 takes over 7 cu yds of cement (5' x 5' x 7').  My foundation took 10 yds.  Think about how you will get the 36,000 lbs of concrete to the foundation location.  My foundation location was not accessible to the truck and they had to use a Bobcat with two 55 gallon drums on the bucket to haul the concrete (15 trips).  foundation work for the antenna

3)  Pre-install PVC conduit and ground conductors to the foundation location. 

4)  Go to the US Tower website and make sure your chosen rotor will fit in the HDX55  -  they have a table of which rotors fit in each tower.  I used a High Gain Tailtwister.  If you plan to use their DCU-1 controller send me an e-mail(WA0CRI@ARRL.NET) and I will give you some info on how to avoid some problems.

5)  The easy way to install your TH11 on the tower is to install only the first section of each element out from the boom.  Then mount the assembly onto the tilted-over tower and mast.  Install the rest of the element sections on the lower half of the antenna.  Tilt the tower up and rotate 180 degrees, lower the tower and install the rest of the elements. 

Anybody out there with a Hy-Gain DCU-1 rototor control unit?  I'm observing a phenomonen driving my Hy-Gain Tailtwister rotator system.  On two occasions my rotator has been rotated to the full CCW limit position and unable to move off the CCW limit when commanded to make a CW rotation.  I believe this to be a programming fault in the DCU firmware  because the rotation sequence in the DCU-1 makes a 2 degree move in the opposite direction before reversing and rotating to the commanded heading.  When the rotator is already at the limit and can't reverse the 2 degrees, the program seems to abort the move.  My recovery on both occasions was to mechanically jog the rotator off the limit so it had room to make the reverse move and then it rotated normally.  I contacted Hy-Gain and they've never heard of such a situation but as a former Process Controls Engineer I'm fairly confident about what I'm observing.  Anybody else experienced a similar problem?

My new HDX555 tower has a Peer FTJ211 thrust bearing supporting the antenna mast.  The installation manual states you should install the eccentric collar on the thrust bearing in the direction of rotation - but Ham antennas rotate both directions.  Since the eccentric collar is only secured to the rest of the bearing assembly by a friction fit, why doesn't rotation counter to the installed direction loosen the collar? 

Allen,
I hope I don't regret just spending $8K on the tower and TH11-DX when only 80 & 160 meters will be usable the rest of my life.  Maybe I should start shopping for a 40 meter mono-bander to put on the tower .  .  .

Doug
WA0CRI

I waited 45 years to purchase my dream HF antenna system with a HDX555 tower and TH11-DX yagi array and then a month later discover that we're possibly on the precipice of a solar event unseen since the invention of radio.  Has anybody taken time to contemplate the effect on Ham Radio or the manufactures and retailers of amateur hardware?  Some have commented that we will just have to wait out the solar hibernation.  The last Maunder Minimum lasted 70 years .  .  .

The Tailtwister will not fit inside the TX-455.  I know because I just bought the HDX-555 so I could accomadate the T-2X Tailtwister rotator.  Call US Tower (559-564-6000) and they can give you a list of which rotaters fit into each of their Ham towers