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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: 16MSRP: $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
15165
NY9H Rating: 2022-08-26
fantastic retired my RT21 Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Aside from all the GREAT features already mentioned; ARCO's ability to have VNC control, offers another visual on my monitors with adjustable size.
The adjustable BEAMWIDTH heading marker is great to watch sweeping across the world.

Even when the ARCO goes to sleep ( adjustable) the current heading is promintly displayed with antenna indication !!!

microHam continues to amaze... Keep it up

bill ny9h
5B4AIY Rating: 2022-08-22
Antenna heading management at its simplest! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I decided it was time to upgrade the rotator controller of my Yaesu G-1000DXC rotator to a more 'user-friendly' device, and the microHAM ARCO controller was the obvious choice. This universal controller is capable of controlling almost any rotator, with DC or AC motor, as well as accommodating virtually any position sensor. In my case I had hoped that it would be a simple 'drop-in' replacement for my standard Yaesu controller.

Prior to the change-over, I positioned my antenna to a known heading, and checked its angular heading both with the ERC Mini Rotor-Control software as well as PstRotatorAz version 14.14, and they both indicated exactly the same. After going through the initial setup of the ARCO, I plugged the Yaesu cable in, and using the CUSTOM menu set the heading to the value previously determined. Whilst it initially seemed OK, I noticed that whenever I tried to move the antenna from my normal default heading of 315 degrees to 110 degrees, instead of the controller commanding the antenna to move to this heading in a CCW direction, it went CW, and would have eventually landed up in the fully CW limit of 90 degrees if I did not force it to stop.

It turned out that you really have to perform a full calibration in order to correctly identify and accommodate your rotator. This is very easy to accomplish, for Yaesu rotators with hardware limit switches such as the G-1000, simply select the HEADING tab, and touch the AUTO tab and follow the prompts. The controller will very gently rotate the antenna first to the fully CCW limit, and then to the fully CW limit, and finally position itself exactly half-way between these two limits. Using a bearing compass, you then measure the actual magnetic heading, and, taking into account the magnetic declination at your location, enter the true heading figure by touching the CUSTOM tab. When that is done the HEADING page will display a horizontal tape scale with the permissible rotation angles shown in red.

It is wise to save the current configuration to the internal memory in case you need to restore it at some later date, and this is accomplished on the SYSTEM page.

Using the default settings, the controller is very gentle in its operation. When moving to a new heading, there is a 5 second very gentle acceleration, and as the antenna approaches the destination a 5 second deceleration before bringing the antenna to a smooth stop. I use both a wireless numeric keypad as well as the touch-screen to control the antenna. I have tried several wireless keypads, and they all work correctly, as well as several wired keypads.

There are several screen zoom settings that can be programmed which in my case I have set to various distances giving me views of the near European countries as well as North/South America, Australia and New Zealand for DX.

In use, simply display the world map with the appropriate zoom ratio, and either enter the heading from the keypad, or simply touch the country, and the antenna will smoothly take up that heading, what could be simpler?

The assistance I got from Jozef was prompt and very helpful, and overall I am extremely pleased with this controller, that makes antenna management so much easier. An excellent piece of kit.

Adrian, 5B4AIY
LU3VA Rating: 2022-01-20
The best Rotator Controller in the market Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have a Yaesu G-1000 rotor.
I bought the ARCO and the difference with the Yaesu Controler is enormous.
The display is very good and the ability to zoom in on the Azimut Map is fantastic.
Setup is very intuitive for me.
The firmware update directly from the Network is very simple.
Beaming the antenna can be done in multiple ways, by touching the screen, by the prefix, the Gridlocator, indicating the angle digitally, directly from the Logger, or manually.

When I had a question, Jozeff immediately answered me via email and helped me solve my doubts.


Thanks Jozeff, a hug and 73
DF8DL Rating: 2022-01-17
Fantastic rotator controller!! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The most useful gadget in my shack in years. Works perfectly with my Yaesu rotator. Calibration works quickly and easily. The manual is very well written and informative. Within minutes the device was working with various computer programs! Really plug and play! Have fun with FT8 and PSTRotator! The large display with the azimuthal display is a real eye-catcher! A technical inquiry at MicroHam was answered competently within a few hours. Thank you Jozef, OM7ZZ!! It doesn't get any better!! Absolute purchase recommendation!
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.