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Reviews For: Alfa-SPID rotor

Category: Antenna Rotators & Accessories

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Review Summary For : Alfa-SPID rotor
Reviews: 53MSRP: 1055
Description:
ALFASPID rotors are of a high quality with Torque to spare. They are custom made to withstand harsh conditions.

Product is in production
More Info: http://www.alfaradio.ca/alfaspid.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00534.1
KB2HUK Rating: 2010-04-10
Like a polish tank ! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have had a Alpha Spid rotor up for 10 years and it has weathered some very bad Buffalo New York storms . Never a problem easy to use and great customer service . Some calls were made to the company and the nice folks there always took the time to answer all my questions and make suggestions. I am very satisfied ! John
KC0BMF Rating: 2010-01-05
The RAS is GREAT Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I've had my RAS az & ele rotor for a year now and really enjoy it.Haven't had any problems other than operator error. I have 2 of M2 biggest oscar antennas the 2MCP22 and the 436CP42 U/G and the RAS handles them very easily. I was sorry to see others had trouble, but if your antenna becomes misaligned do to strong winds its a pretty easy fix just point your antenna north and reset the controller. No need to pull the antenna. And as far as its weight, it is heavy, ITS MADE OF STEEL LIKE EVERYTHING USE TO BE THAT LASTED FOR EVER.. If I can find 1 more Cushcraft 13b2 (that will give me 4) I'm going to mount them up on the Spid and try a little QRP EME and am sure the Spid will handle them. I do have a little noise on VHF, but it looks like, by reading, that there are some pretty easy fixes. And its not enough that it bothers me. I'm putting up a 72' crankup and it will have a Spid on it also.
EI7BA Rating: 2009-12-11
Solid and reliable Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I said I'd check back when it had gone through an irish winter..Well, that was nearly four years ago, and it's still trouble free. I love the positioning sensor.. It's so simple. No pots to burn out, and you don't even have to set it up in any particular direction. Just tell the controller where it's pointing, and "Bob's yer uncle". After four years of salt-laden Atlantic gales, there's no sign of any slop in the gearing. I paint it every summer, and renew the grease. I bought another one this year for my other tower.
VE3YZR Rating: 2007-12-30
Very good value Time Owned: N.A.
I've had Tailtwister, HRD 300 and a Create brake, I've also tried Yaesu's (not the 2800) and they've all broke. Either the gears, cheap casting, etc.

I like the double worm drive of this one, the clever mounting system that easily allows it to be mounted anywhere in the mast line and you can route the cables through it.

For the Canadian weather with wind and ice, experience has demonstrated that no less will do.

I have not tried the Prosistel which is about the only one commercially available for me to try left, this Alpha-Spid unit is very flexible: varying PS voltage will control speed, controller is computer ready and it just works.
KL7AR Rating: 2006-10-10
Over rated and cheap Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Well for all of you people that put in glowing reports "GOOD LUCK". I purchased an AlfaSpid when I put up my new Force 12 620/340 beam. It weighs about 250 LBS.on a 50 foot boom. The 1st thing I found was that rotator was hard to install and badly engineered. With the pipe to pipe monting system, if you have a problem and you have to remove the rotator be prepared to lift your antenna up 6 inches to enable you to get the unit out of the tower.The locking bolts are flat on the ends thus if you are using a harden steel mast they will slip and allow the antenna to turn. This happened to me in the first wind storm with 50 MPH winds. I was forced to remove the factor bolts and replace them with bolts that were tappered on the ends and then dimple the mast. This worked a little to well. In the next wind storm 65 MPH winds the rotator was completely destroyed. It was ripped apart allowing the beam to swing in the wind and destroy the coax feed line. Between the crane to get the antenna down and the replacement coax the repair was $1000. BIG MISTAKE TO BUY AN ALFASPID. One thing I noticed was that during the wind storm the gearing would allow the boom of the antenna to move 5 to 6 feet. This constant slamming of the antenna against the gearing in the rotator I am sure hastened it's failure. BAD DESIGN! The controller is noisy on HF. The unit has no "Soft Start or Stop" therefore when you turn it to a heading it takes about one minute for the unit to stop ocsillating around the assigned heading. When I decided to look for a rotator that could handle the elemnts up here in Alaska I talked at lenght to the people in Canada at the factory and they assured me that their product could handle the load. "THEY LIED". It will definitely not handle any kind of large array for very long. When I pointed this out to AlfaSpid they started back peddling, they told me I should have put a long drive shaft down to the base of the tower to take up the stress load." Baloney" it either will or will not do the job. Why would anybody buy a rotator which you then need to modify and hope the wind does not blow. To their credit they did give me a new unit. ANYBODY WANT TO BUY A NEW ALFASPID? I replaced the rotator with a PRO.SIS.TEL. 71D. It is worth the money and has not failed me yet.
DK5WL Rating: 2006-08-16
Good mechanics, unreliable electric Time Owned: more than 12 months.
We are using the Alfaspid RAK rotor since April last year to turn a Steppir 3 Element yagi and a 2m Yagi (see www.160m.de ). What I especially like is that the Alfaspid is very quite (acoustically). In contrast to the HAM-M which I used before you do not hear at all when the antenna is turning. There is some noise on 6m and 2m as long as the motor is running but that does not bother me.
The rotor was working fine until December last year. Suddenly the control unit did not work anymore. After 3 weeks I got a new control unit from my dealer. Until I got the replacement I turned the antenna by connecting the rotor directly with a 12V power supply.
The replacement unit haa a different connector type (the one used to plug in microfones) and is more sensitive to RF. When operating on 80m and 40m with the amplifier the relays in the control unit are switching on and off. This was fixed with 3 turns of control cable on a toriod. Probably this problem can be avoided by using shielded cable.
Last Saturday the rotor suddenly did not turn anymore. With the type of tower I am using you can only take the antenna down when the beam is exactly turned to a specific direction. If the rotor does not work I have to climb on the tower and move the antenna manually to be able to take everything down for repair.
Fortuneately K1YZW explains in his Jan. 3, 2006, review that he was able to "repair" the alfaspid by injecting high voltage over resistors. By feeding the rotor with 220 volts over a 1N4004 diode and 240 Ohm the Alfaspid motor impedance immediately changed from about 1000 Ohm back to about 5 Ohm. I connected the rotor back to the control unit and it works fine again since that, but how long?
VK4KKD Rating: 2006-06-02
Fantastic rotor Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have now been using Spid rotators for more than four years. I have 5 units in operation and the main tower unit has at various times been loade up with some very heavy antenna arrays. At one time it was rotating a 6el homebrew (very heavy duty) HF Log Periodic (13MHz - 30MHz)on a 6.5m boom, above this I had two phased 10el quads for 144MHz. above this I had a 4el wide spaced Delta loop for 50MHz.
Under the LPDA I had a 7el Log Cell yagi for 28MHz.
Even though I have the ability to instantly lower my antenna arrays should bad weather turn up, I do not bother unless I have warning that the winds will exceed 40kts - I build my antennas strongly (the 7el LCY on 28MHz. was a commercially made unit from Werner Wulf) - this means I have a pretty fair amount of load on the rotator in regard to torque from the wind pressure. The Spid has never had a problem except for one which I caused myself - I was too stupid to make sure I sealed the cover of the connector block properly after I connected the wires. This was easily rectified and after a little sealant was applied the problem ceased to exist.
My second tower - is set up strictly for UHF/VHF - EME and satellite work - it has also had a wide range of arrays fitted - for example it had 4 (phased) x 12el DL6WU pattern yagis (6.1m booms)on 144MHz. and 8(phased)x 28el DL6WU pattern yagis (6.4m booms) for 432MHz. This array was a total of 172 CUBIC METERS of air space when it was fitted to the steel spreader frame.
It carries only 2 (phased) 10el quads for 144MHz. and 4 (phased) 22el circular full wave loop antennae for my normal portable work - the tower is trailer mounted. Pictures of it can be seen on my website at http://www.spin.net.au/~aeitower - the last two rotators one az and one el are set up on a "perpetual" motion display which uses my laptop to track satellites - I have this running 24/7 and it simply rotates the antennas as the laptop software acquires the next bird.
How can I sum up - all I can say is that years of problem free use - super flexibilty with the DC operation (I am a mad keen portable freak) - low cost - absolutely no sign of any RF pickup in or emission from the units or the control unit - small bench top footprint - a mouse controller with 6 pre-sets - half and full auto - software controlled limits and get this a full 720 dgrees of rotation if you want it.
When something this good comes along you shout about it from the rooftops.
In fact I liked these solid little beauties so much I applied to the manufacturer for the Australian/New Zealand and Oceania dealership and I am pleased to say was successful.
Worldwide sales and an ever increasing "user" base are the proof of the pudding - there are stronger rotors available - but the Spid is the best priced unit in it's category available on the market.
You might say I am biased - and I would have to say you are right - if they were not so good I would not want to sell them!!!!!!!

N4JBK Rating: 2006-05-22
tough Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I am turning a telrex 20m646 ( 20 meters 6 elements 200 pounds 46 foot boom) and a hygain 5 elemenet 15 meter. A good stiff wind ( one of our hurricanes) ripped the guts out of one of the yaesu g1000dxa's. The afla spid laughs at the same winds, the antennas kinda rock back and forth a little but thats it. i think its a great testimony to the value and workmanship of the alfaspid seeing how prosistel badmouths them.
VE6XL Rating: 2006-04-16
Very Solid Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have used this rotator for a year and it works excellent.

This rotator is very well built, steel construction and very sturdy. The control box works great and is easy to use. This rotator will turn everything.

The unit was very easy to wire and set up. The manual is well written.

I would recommend the optional mouse control. In addition sealing the wire box with silicone is a good idea.

The only point of critism is the lack of a ground lug somewhere on the control box. I added one myself. (minor)

VE6XL
www.ve6xl.ca
K1YZW Rating: 2006-01-03
Unreliable product-poor technical support Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
My experience with the Alfa-Spid machine is in direct contrast with some of the glowing reports I read. My device was short-lived, the service from the Canadian agent was poor and misleading. Some minor annoyances: lifting the antenna mast into the output tube is inconvenient. In heavy winds my 17 sq ft antenna slipped; I had to drill a couple of indentations into the steel mast to seat the clamping bolts. The thing is heavy, being made of steel rather than cast aluminum. RFI problems were severe; on occasions the RF pickup would actually turn the antenna! I had never experienced this with any of my earlier rotators. Heavy by-passing inside the control box eventually provided a fix. After less than a year's use, operation became erratic. Using an external higher voltage supply through a resistor seemed to temporarily break down the film of dirt on the commutator.The root cause was ingress of water. There was a lot of moisture under the plastic cover - wires from the motor go through upward facing clearance holes (not proper feed-thru terminals) so that any water would run straight into the motor. The seating of the plastic cover is poor, as is that of the (too short) plastic tube over the wires leaving the machine. I live right on the East Coast - winds from the east are salt-laden, from the west we get acid rain caused by factories in the mid-west. I limped along with the external power supply to the motor, using a stopwatch to estimate antenna position. I wanted to avoid removing the rotor for repair at all costs and was told by Alfa-Spid that I could clean up the commutator after removing the motor cover. I was promised replacement brushes; these never arrived. When I pressed the issue, the Alfa people changed their mind and said the machine had to be removed. In the meantime, I sent my control unit back to Alfa for inspection; they told me it was OK, yet it was never returned to me. Eventually I gave up, wrote a report for the Alfa people asking for compensation (copy available on request). Their reply was "We will get back to you shortly." After 2½ months and one reminder, I am still waiting. They also have no interest in examining the failed unit. By not returning my control unit, the Alfa people effectively stole it, and their product support is worthless. A couple of good points which hardly matter: the device is powerful and setting up and correcting the directional display is easy.