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| Reviews Summary for BIG BOY ROTORS |
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Reviews: 35
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Average rating: 4.4/5
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MSRP: $995.95
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Description: Sold in the USA by www.arraysolutions.com --
Vine Antennas (www.vinecom.co.uk) are the UK / Ireland authorised retailer
for these rotators
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More info: http://www.bigboyrotators.com
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SM4OTI
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Rating: 5/5
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Jun 10, 2009 23:32
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PST71
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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Just upgraded from PST61 to PST71. The mechanical design of the PST71 compared to the PST61 is more robust and the slack in the worm wheel in the PST71 is much better (less) than in the PST61.
The reason for the upgrade was that in heavy winds (>15 m/s) during 5 hours or more the PST61 was not able to keep the antennas in the direction it had when last stopped because of the momentum in combination with vibrations caused by the large antennas and high winds.
I hope that the manufacturer will update the firmware in the controller box (D-version), so some of the problems I previously described in another review will be addressed as they still exist.
Another thing on the wish-to-have-list is an electronic stop-switch/breaker when the rotator reaches the end destination after a full turn CW or CCW. Just as a safety feature if something goes wrong with the output in the controller-box.
If you can, I strongly suggest to go for the PST71 if you can. It's a great rotator and it can handle big antennas.
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DF3KV
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Rating: 5/5
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Feb 16, 2009 13:58
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Excellent Service
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I own 4 rotators PST2051 since 1999.
My location is on a windy hilltop within a narrow valley which leads to extreme wind velocity from time to time and heavy gusts.
Three out of 4 rotators failed with identical gear box problems and were repaired by Gianni very quickly during the years without charge when warranty already was expired.
The last failure happended in 2008, 9 years after the initial buy and was repaired again free of charge!
But what most amazed me, three of my control boxes were u/s by lightning and sent as well.
One digital one was not repairable anymore because the necassary IC was not obtainable. This was replaced by a brand new one! And the two others well repaired.
Again, no charge after 9 years, unbelievable service which I never got from any other company.
He even did not charge the transport cost.
Peter
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PD2GCM
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Rating: 0/5
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Jan 6, 2009 02:59
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Never again !!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Bought what looked like a good quality rugged rotator.
However when using it for the first time the rotor/antenna was turning around 360 degrees (None Stop)
Due to this apparent manufacture fault the aircell cables got wrapped around the pole and broke.
Once the factory repaired the rotor it worked fine for two years - until last week that is - when again the same symptoms occurred - with the exception that this time the coax cables didn't break.
I have just bought a brand new Yaesu G-1000-DXC - hopefully this one works much better than the Big Boy Rotor which unfortunately I have very little faith in.
73s Gerard PD2GCM
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OH2XX
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Rating: 2/5
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Nov 21, 2008 02:17
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Not water resistant
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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I know at least two other stations having the same problem as I do with this rotator.
It seems that the rotator does not stand rain too well. I had moisture in the connector attached to the rotator making the control box going berserk. This happened just 2 weeks after installation. The new connector should be water resistant but it sure was not. I dried it and sealed with silicon tape and things got back to normal. After 5 months the same problem reappeared. This time the connector was ok. Talking to my friends with the same rotator they told me that the potentiometer inside is sensitive to moisture as well... That one is not so easy to inspect but I am running out of options.
If I get it working again I'll sure build a housing to cover the rotator.
The positive side is that the rotator has survived two storms (25 m/s) so far. It is not too much of comfort now though.
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EA3GOA
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Rating: 5/5
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Oct 17, 2008 13:26
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PST 61-D
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have a rotor PST 61-D from a year ago and has not given me any problem, it is very robust in my area and strong winds blowing hang a trouble-free antenna Optibeam OB16-5.
Rotor is a totally recommended.
EA3GOA
MANUEL
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AH6FC
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Rating: 5/5
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Feb 21, 2008 15:03
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Remarkably Robust
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I've had this rotator in place for about 8 months, first with a 4 element SteppIR, 6 element 6 meter, and 15 element 2 meter yagi and now I've replaced the Steppir with an Optibeam 18-6...which is huge and heavy. This rotator turns all of this metal without pause, even in moderate winds (50 - 60 mph). I'm using the heavy duty version of the 61D. I had a couple of questions and Jay at Array Solution was right there to help. Good service. The rotator is about 500 feet from the shack and I have no problem controlling it with a medium grade rotator cable. The controller box is well built and rugged, just like the rotator. The instructions are well written and quite clear...which is not always the case with amateur products, particularly those from non-English speaking countries. Perhaps this is more rotator than one may need, but I don't think I'll be purchasing future rotators, regardless of the antenna system I may be using. Prior to purchasing this I explored the Orion and some others. I'm sure they are good products, but for big antennas Pro.sis.tel is the way to go. It is an expensive unit but seems to be money well spent.
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LX2A
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Rating: 5/5
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Nov 1, 2007 04:00
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3 prosistel rotators @ LX7i
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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At the conteststation LX7I we are using 3 rotators from Prosistel 2 times the PST2051D and one time the havy duty PST61 DHP.
The location of the contest-station is on a hilltop and it is always very windy. We had some rotators from other companies like Yaesu and Hy-Gain but they never survived a long time.
Just before the CQWWSSB contest I had a little trouble with my PST61 due to some litning and the motor and Control unit needed to be replaced very fastly.
The support was realy great from Gianni IK7MWR and within 2 days I had a new control unit just in time for the contest.
I can only say that the rotator is great and even if you have a problem the support is also great.
cu on the bands
73s de Philippe LX2A / LX7I / LX9DX
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SM4OTI
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Rating: 4/5
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Sep 2, 2007 22:45
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PST61D - problems
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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This is my experience about the Prosistel PST61D rotator that I bought a few monts ago and now have installed in the tower and been in use for 4 weeks. A very good friend of mine recently bought this model too and has the same problem with it.
The problem is that when I turn the rotator with the PRESET button, when it reaches its destination it sometimes exceed the preset value with one or two degrees and it stops and than immediately reverse the direction of the rotation a couple of degrees and then comes to a complete stop. This happens about 1 time out of 20. The bad thing is that it does this reversation with full power and without ramping start.
I have contacted the manufacturer and they told me use the 15V tapping of the transformer instead of the original 18V tapping to slow down the rotation speed. They also told me to change some of the PWM-settings (via the supplied software), which I did, but still the same problem in 1 try out of 20.
It all ended up with that the manufacturer did not have any solution to this behaviour, so I simply have to live with it. My concern is that in the long run this might stress the design. My feeling is that the firmware in the control box has this little bug, which need to be addressed, but seems like the manufacturer disagree.
A couple of more things that could be improved is that the ramping start and stop feature does only work with the preset button, if I turn the rotator with the CW/CCW buttons the rotator is started with full power and no ramping, it also stops without any ramping. This is no big deal, as the heavy design probably cope with this anyway.
Another thing that happens when the rotator turn itself a few degrees from the force of the wind, is that the controller box trying to compensate for this all the time, so in heavy winds, I simply have to turn of the power switch of the controller box in order to stop this behaviour.
The controller box does not contain any grounding terminal, and in my case I could not transmit and turn the rotator at the same time as RF found its way into the controller box which made it crazy. This happened with as low power as 50W. After I installed a grounding terminal at the back of the controller box and connected it to my grounding system where I have the rest of my radios/PAs etc. connected to this problem vanished. I can now transmit with full legal power without any RF interference problem. This happened even though the tower has a severe grounding system and the antenna has almost perfect SWR (Optibeam OB17-4, 40, 20, 15, 10 meter bands). So, a good common ground solved this problem and also show the importance of a good common ground.
Anyway, it's a great rotator with a great price for what you get, so I would still recommend it, but improvments could be made by the manufacturer, that's my opinion.
See you down the log!
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N3JPU
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 5, 2007 16:33
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Super rotor
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Bought my PST2051D from Array Solutions.
Built in RS-232 port that works with all the logging programs, nothing extra to add. 500 deg of rotation. Been working great.
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M1WML
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 3, 2007 05:30
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excelent and the best...
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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i use the pro.sis.tel 2051 This rotator is the best i have ever used..it turns a 3 element steppIR no trouble.. it,s a quaility piece of kit.. and yes i could of brought a yaesu for less money but i would rather go for quaility rarther than save a few pounds...
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