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Reviews For: ProSisTel Rotators

Category: Antenna Rotators & Accessories

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Review Summary For : ProSisTel Rotators
Reviews: 41MSRP: Varies
Description:
Sold in the USA by www.arraysolutions.com -- Vine Antennas (www.vinecom.co.uk) are the UK / Ireland authorised retailer for these rotators
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.arraysolutions.com/index.php?route=product/manufacturer/info&manufacturer_id=33
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00414.4
KJ6RA Rating: 2012-04-01
PST71 Great rotator Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have had mine for over a year now, I bought it used and it is the older AC motor. It is very reliable and holds my arrays confidently in high winds. I have the "C" controller box, the one down side to that is it only ACCEPTS RS-232 commands but give now feedback as to where it is presently pointing. All the more reason to put a RT-21 on it.
This is just a great rotator that should last a long time and can carry the load with ease.
N9LB Rating: 2011-12-05
Built Like A Truck Transmission Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have three ProSisTel Big Boy rotors running in my antenna farm. Two of the older "Gold Motor" vintage and one new "Blue Motor" series. They are excellent rotors - strong smooth, quiet, built like a truck transmission and have no problems operating here in Wisconsin where the winters are harsh - lots of wind and ice.

BTW… The ProSisTel rotors have a worm-drive gear arrangement and are much heavier than the HyGain and Yaesu rotors that I have used in the past!

I am using aftermarket controllers - Green Heron Engineering RT-21. I recommend you look at this option to accompany the Prosistel Big Boy rotor. I consider the RT-21 a “Must Have”.

Note: there is an option, when using the Green Heron controller, to replace the 10K 10-turn position reporting pot (that is supplied by Prosistel) with a 500 ohm 3-turn pot supplied by you. This will improve the pointing display accuracy and repeatability - a consideration when running VHF/UHF stacked arrays.

BTW ... Array Solutions sells and services both items in North America.

73

Lloyd - N9LB
W3DIY Rating: 2010-12-02
A Heavy Weight Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I was asked to dismantle a 100' 25 G. The Big Boy rotor at the top was turning a 2M beam with a 18' boom.
Because of high winds I wanted to get this done quickly. Getting the beam on the ground went smoothly so I decided to leave the motor in place and lower it with the tower. Oh was that a mistake. My Yaseu 2800 SDX is a flyweight, compared to this Big Boy.
While transporting the control box one of the direction switches was damaged.A replacement was sent from Italy quickly and without charge.
Great product and service to compliment it.
9K2UU Rating: 2010-10-19
1st class customer service Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have a Big Boy PST61D rotor by PRO.SIS.TEL and I just want to share with you my experience with this company. I purchased this rotor in 2008 directly from the company in Italy but have not used it before the summer of 2010 when I finally put up my new free standing Universal tower and the OptiBeam yagi antenna 13-6. My decision to acquire this rotor came after comprehensive search in the market and comparing its specifications to other brands where the Big Boy topped them easily. The blue rotor worked smoothly for sometime rotating my monster antenna (120 KG with the mast and other antennas on top) before it stopped rotating for an unknown reason. I called Gianny from PROSISTEL and he was a big help in guiding me via many emails and Skype troubleshoot this problem. The rotor worked again for a while and then developed a similar problem. I contacted Gianny again and he a apologized for this inconvenience and offered me without hesitation a new replacement rotor and he even shipped it for free to me in Kuwait. The new rotor is now performing very well under the sizzling heat and dusty weather of Kuwait. l would like to seize this moment to express my thanks and deep appreciation to Gianny and PRO.SIS.TEL for this excellent customer service, which I consider first class. I give PRO.SIS.TEL big 5 for making me a happy customer by replacing my rotor even after the expiry of the 2-year warranty and for the elite customer support.

Barrak Alkhubaizi , 9K2UU
DJ4KW Rating: 2009-12-09
Robust Rotor, Control Box Problems Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Got a PST 2051 D rotator from the German distributer Appello 5 months ago. It replaced a HAM-M hygain rotator because I wanted remote control by computer. The rotator looks robust and elegant, well built. It works very quiet compared to the grinding noise of the HAM-M and there is no brake that makes a banging noise when operated. After three months the control box showed wrong beam-directions; this occured after I had unplugged it for lightening protection in my absence. Appello pointed out that because rotator and control box are paired and adjusted to each other, they could not exchange the control box as I requested, but I would have to turn in box and rotator, then they could realign it. Alternatively, if I did not want to climb or tilt my mast, I could readjust two potentiometers in the control box. This normally would void the warranty, but I got instructions and an OK to do so. These instructions are not understandable unless you know the theory of operation, but with me and another experienced PST2051D-owner it was only a light turn on one of the potentiometers and all was OK again. For me the control box with the large transformer inside looks much too big. Having no switching power supply and using position potentiometers instead of digitally counting revolutions looks old fashioned; but the big advantage is that there is no ditital hash in radio reception. 73 DJ4KW (also AC6YM V31YN)
SM4OTI Rating: 2009-06-10
PST71 Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Just upgraded from PST61 to PST71. The mechanical design of the PST71 compared to the PST61 is more robust and the slack in the worm wheel in the PST71 is much better (less) than in the PST61.

The reason for the upgrade was that in heavy winds (>15 m/s) during 5 hours or more the PST61 was not able to keep the antennas in the direction it had when last stopped because of the momentum in combination with vibrations caused by the large antennas and high winds.

I hope that the manufacturer will update the firmware in the controller box (D-version), so some of the problems I previously described in another review will be addressed as they still exist.

Another thing on the wish-to-have-list is an electronic stop-switch/breaker when the rotator reaches the end destination after a full turn CW or CCW. Just as a safety feature if something goes wrong with the output in the controller-box.

If you can, I strongly suggest to go for the PST71 if you can. It's a great rotator and it can handle big antennas.
DF3KV Rating: 2009-02-16
Excellent Service Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I own 4 rotators PST2051 since 1999.
My location is on a windy hilltop within a narrow valley which leads to extreme wind velocity from time to time and heavy gusts.
Three out of 4 rotators failed with identical gear box problems and were repaired by Gianni very quickly during the years without charge when warranty already was expired.
The last failure happended in 2008, 9 years after the initial buy and was repaired again free of charge!
But what most amazed me, three of my control boxes were u/s by lightning and sent as well.
One digital one was not repairable anymore because the necassary IC was not obtainable. This was replaced by a brand new one! And the two others well repaired.
Again, no charge after 9 years, unbelievable service which I never got from any other company.
He even did not charge the transport cost.

Peter

PD2GCM Rating: 2009-01-06
Never again !! Time Owned: more than 12 months.

Bought what looked like a good quality rugged rotator.
However when using it for the first time the rotor/antenna was turning around 360 degrees (None Stop)
Due to this apparent manufacture fault the aircell cables got wrapped around the pole and broke.
Once the factory repaired the rotor it worked fine for two years - until last week that is - when again the same symptoms occurred - with the exception that this time the coax cables didn't break.
I have just bought a brand new Yaesu G-1000-DXC - hopefully this one works much better than the Big Boy Rotor which unfortunately I have very little faith in.

73s Gerard PD2GCM

AH6FC Rating: 2008-02-21
Remarkably Robust Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I've had this rotator in place for about 8 months, first with a 4 element SteppIR, 6 element 6 meter, and 15 element 2 meter yagi and now I've replaced the Steppir with an Optibeam 18-6...which is huge and heavy. This rotator turns all of this metal without pause, even in moderate winds (50 - 60 mph). I'm using the heavy duty version of the 61D. I had a couple of questions and Jay at Array Solution was right there to help. Good service. The rotator is about 500 feet from the shack and I have no problem controlling it with a medium grade rotator cable. The controller box is well built and rugged, just like the rotator. The instructions are well written and quite clear...which is not always the case with amateur products, particularly those from non-English speaking countries. Perhaps this is more rotator than one may need, but I don't think I'll be purchasing future rotators, regardless of the antenna system I may be using. Prior to purchasing this I explored the Orion and some others. I'm sure they are good products, but for big antennas Pro.sis.tel is the way to go. It is an expensive unit but seems to be money well spent.
LX2A Rating: 2007-11-01
3 prosistel rotators @ LX7i Time Owned: more than 12 months.
At the conteststation LX7I we are using 3 rotators from Prosistel 2 times the PST2051D and one time the havy duty PST61 DHP.
The location of the contest-station is on a hilltop and it is always very windy. We had some rotators from other companies like Yaesu and Hy-Gain but they never survived a long time.
Just before the CQWWSSB contest I had a little trouble with my PST61 due to some litning and the motor and Control unit needed to be replaced very fastly.
The support was realy great from Gianni IK7MWR and within 2 days I had a new control unit just in time for the contest.
I can only say that the rotator is great and even if you have a problem the support is also great.
cu on the bands
73s de Philippe LX2A / LX7I / LX9DX