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Reviews For: MICROHAM ARCO ANTENNA CONTROLLER

Category: Antenna Rotators & Accessories

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Review Summary For : MICROHAM ARCO ANTENNA CONTROLLER
Reviews: 12MSRP: $800/$900
Description:
The ARCO is a modern rotator controller designed for reliable operation with virtually any rotator ever made, commercial or home brew. ARCO provides a lot of unique present day functions, not yet available in any other controller. Rotator motion is carefully controlled using auto-adapting, smoothly graduating/decaying speeds, reducing inertial stress, and prolonging lifetime of the rotator, antennas and tower. Built to last, built for security, built for total satisfaction! Have pleasure with new features, bringing your gear extra protection and longer life!

Available with either 200W or 400W power supply

Product is in production
More Info: https://www.microham.com/contents/en-us/d50_ARCO.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
64.8124.9
N6TV Rating: 2021-08-27
The best rotator control box on the market, by far Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I've always dreamed of a standalone rotator controller that combined a rotator needle and great circle map with a real time gray line plot. Big THANKS to microHAM for making this dream a reality. The many features of this rotator controller exceeded my wildest dreams. Watch the video on the microHAM site, which demos all the cool features.

With the ARCO, you can select one heading or preset, then while it is moving, you can select a different heading, perhaps in the opposite direction, and it ramps down, stops, and ramps up and moves to the new heading. To my knowledge, the Green Heron RT-21 firmware was never enhanced to support that; you have to manually hit "STOP" first, then select a new heading, a major design flaw of the RT-21. The ARCO has no such flaw.

I now have the ARCO working great with my Create RC5B-3 rotator, which used to be "The World's best rotator control box." That old Create controller is now just a backup. The ARCO is now the best.

Follow the ARCO manual carefully. No hard copy manual is provided with the unit, which is just as well because any hard copy would quickly become out of date as they add new features. microHAM included everything else you need, including a long CAT6 STP (shielded) Ethernet cable, USB cable, Power Cord, and convenient male and female terminal blocks. These blocks makes it easy to swap in your old controller if something quits in the ARCO, just plug the blocks together and play. But the ARCO's all metal case is built like a tank, so it feels like it was built to last.

I love the preset buttons and all the advanced heading lookup features (by callsign prefix, CQ zone, ITU Zone, or even grid locator), plus of course the beautiful built-in touch screen with real-time greyline map, and four map "zoom" options. The clock sets itself automatically over the Ethernet connection. Touch the map to turn, what could be easier? Or turn the knob. Or use your PC; the ARCO emulates and accepts software commands compatible with Yaesu, HyGain DCU-1/Rotor EZ, and SPID. I had no trouble getting my logging software (Win-Test wtRotators) to work with it.

I only had two issues during setup. The first issue was that turning the antenna manually with the CW / CCW buttons worked OK for a few seconds, then the display quickly reported "Not Moving" and rotation stopped. That prevented the AUTO cal from working. Upgrading the ARCO firmware from 1_1_A to 1_2_A using the touch screen Interface and an Internet connection corrected that problem. That's right, this rotator can update its firmware all by itself with no PC or USB stick required.

The second issue was that the direction indicator was moving CCW when I pressed the CW button, so it was rotating in the correct direction, but reading backwards, a possibility noted in the manual.

This was easily corrected by following the suggestion to reverse the POT LO and POT HI wires. The manual has already been updated to explain how to test this and correct it.

After that, AUTO calibration completed successfully, and everything started working VERY well. Just point the beam to a known heading (or point the beam at the sun), tap a button, and the direction is set perfectly.

Thanks again to microHAM for engineering such a great product.
IK0OZD Rating: 2021-08-26
GREAT CONTROLLER and ASSISTANCE 10+++++ Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
many will write that the price is high, i recommend it to those who have old controllers like my yaesu g450c, spectacular graphics resolution, you will be amazed. Online support there is Jozef OM7ZZ who is truly a competent, friendly and helpful person. surely rotor manufacturers will have to improve their controllers a lot.