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Reviews For: Audiovox (RCA) VH226F & VH227F

Category: Antenna Rotators & Accessories

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Review Summary For : Audiovox (RCA) VH226F & VH227F
Reviews: 2MSRP: 99
Description:
Antenna Rotator
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0025
5B4AIY Rating: 2021-03-17
Although nominally 120V/60Hz, this can work on 50Hz as well Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Unfortunately, I have to revise my assessment. Although the controller can be calibrated for operation on 120V/50Hz, I have experienced several instances where it has reverted back to its 60Hz default calibration. I also found that clearing the position memory also cleared the calibration memory, again restoring the 60Hz calibration factor. The memory is cleared by pressing and holding the 'D' button on the front panel of the controller, and turning the power on. The display will remain blank, and the CW and CCW LEDs will illuminate. Release the button, and turn the power off and back on, the memory will be erased.

After a lot of experiments I finally managed to provoke the firmware bug. Simply calibrate the rotator for 50Hz, and then repeatedly cycle the power switch allowing several seconds between cycles. It may occur on the first cycle, or after several cycles, but eventually the bug will be provoked, and the calibration will revert to the default 60Hz value. This bug would pass unnoticed when operating on 60Hz mains, because, unless the motor's speed was grossly off, the default 60Hz calibration factor of 57 seconds for one complete rotation is good enough. On 50Hz mains this bug is readily apparent, as the actual antenna position and the indicated position will now be seriously in error.

If you can live with having to re-calibrate, or else live with the error and simply make yourself a table of actual versus displayed bearings, then this is still a good rotator, but for me, sadly this is an unacceptable fault.
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I needed a rotator for my Wellbrook active loop antenna, and saw this rotator advertised on eBay for about $50. It was described as being 120/240V 50/60Hz but when received I found it was 120V 60Hz. I found that I could get it to work on 240V/50Hz by using a 240/120V auto-transformer. As the unit only consumes about 30W, a small 50VA transformer was entirely sufficient.

My first surprise was finding that there were only 3 wires connecting the controller to the rotator. Unlike more conventional rotators, there was no angular position sensor. This rotator uses a capacitor run induction motor and to determine the actual position the controller times the rotation. As you might expect, using 50Hz causes the motor to rotate at only 83% of its normal speed, and thus the displayed position and the actual position differ significantly.

Fortunately the manual describes a calibration procedure to correct position errors, and initially when I tried this it seemed to work, until I turned the power off. When I turned the power back on the controller was still using the original calibration, and the displayed position was again incorrect. To calibrate you have to first initialise the antenna by driving it to its fully anticlockwise limit, then press and hold the INITIALISATION and right-arrow buttons. The right-arrow button must be pressed slightly after the INITIALISATION button, whereupon the display will start incrementing in seconds.

For 50Hz let the display increment up to 68 and then release the buttons. Then press the INITIALISATION button to drive the antenna back to its starting position. In my case this did not store the new calibration factor, but I found that if I repeated the procedure, and then pressed the MEMORY button and then the 'A' button that seemed to force the controller to save the new calibration factor. You then have to restore the previous position into the 'A' memory.

With that done, the unit now works on 120V/50Hz and correctly displays the antenna position. Since the Wellbrook loop only weighs about 1kg there is very little loading on the rotator, and this seems to be an ideal solution. I had to make an adaptor for the short section of tubing that is fitted to the Wellbrook loop, and I found some scrap pieces of aluminium tubing that just fitted over the tube to increase the diameter so that it could be clamped in the rotator's fitting. Other than that it was a simple assembly and mounting job.

My only difficulty was obtaining some weather resistant silicon rubber 3-core cable that was small enough to fit through the grommet at the rotator, as well as the rear hole of the controller. In the end I replaced the grommet with one having a larger hole, and opened out the hole in the rear of the controller with a taper reamer to accept the cable I finally manage to obtain.

So far this has proven to be a very satisfactory solution to my problem.
N8FVJ Rating: 2018-05-22
Great Price Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The Audiovox VH226F & VH227F also marketed by RCA is a cheap alternate for antennas up to guessing 5 square feet (not rated). A review at Amazon states using 6 & 2 meter antennas at 3 sq ft load has survived 80 mph winds and ice storms over the past year.

The rotator was revised a few years ago with a new weather sealed motor & heavier duty bearings. It is made in China. It appears to be a great alternate to used light duty rotors that cost more.

As mentioned this is for light duty applications. Larger antenna systems over 4-5 square feet must use the very expensive ham rated rotors.

About $99 shipped from ebay.