Print

[WA1RKT]

I have a HyGain DCU-2 I use with a Tailtwister.  I bought it new from HRO and have had it about a year, I think.

The DCU-2  is mostly OK but the Heading Set control jumps all over the place when trying to set a heading.  Turning it right one click, for example, should increment the heading by either one or five depending on how you have it set (and the way to select between one and five is undocumented as best I can tell).  Instead it often increments the heading by some random number +/- about 15-20 or so.  Clearly the switch is bouncing and the debounce software is poor or nonexistent.  It makes it annoyingly difficult to get a precise beam heading; fortunately most beams aren't that critical.

Today I received another DCU-2 that I bought on ebay for 1/2 the HRO price.  It does the same thing, only worse.  It is so bad that I was not able to put in my call sign, the switch would jump over the letters I wanted and even after I managed to get it correct, exiting the Setup menu showed something different in the call sign block on the display.

The DCU-2 controls the rotator as it should and if I could find a solution for this problem I'd be happy.  I'm in a dialog with MFJ and they're trying to help, they did make one suggestion that unfortunately did no good.

Since this happens with the new one that I've had a year and the used one I received today, it must be a fairly common problem.  Anyone had this experience and know what to do about it?

Thanks...

Rick WA1RKT
Londonderry, NH
Catch me on 14.300 MHz Intercon / MMSN most days