[amsat-bb] Re: Home brewing El. Az. rotators

[Don Fanning]

Absolutely.  Unfortunately due to lack of tools and all the robot 
engineers around here, alot of the right parts are not available 
locally.  Plus I move around too much right now with the way the tech 
market is so I'd rather have something that I can also have fun with 
portably. 

Not to knock those who got the G-5400 or better.  Nothing wrong with 
that equipment.  But I like the homebrew aspect of the hobby as much as 
I like the COTS availability of parts/gear.  Too bad I came around about 
20 years too late for Heathkit otherwise I'd be buying stock in them! 
hihi...

But it's important even to the newer/younger potential hams that things 
like satellite communication can be done with style on a budget and even 
a little edgy to give them hope that one day they can own a 30 element 
EME array or have a 30 meter dish in their backyard on a appropriate 
az/el mount.  Start small, think big.  I got the right gear that has 
been missing the right antenna setup.  But that's changing sooner than 
later...

See you on the birds!

de Don (KL7EET)

Tony VK5ZAI wrote:
> Hi Guys,
> Seems a lot of talk about rotators lately, have you thought about 
> building up your own, I did this around 15 years ago and the system has 
> never been switched off apart from twice when moving QTH and the 
> occasional service, greasing etc. My present QTH is 300 yds from the 
> Southern Ocean and we get some almighty winds in the winter but it keeps 
> on going. It's driven by 2 windshield wiper motors and constructed of 
> parts that can generally be scrounged from vehicle and machinery junk 
> yards etc. You will require a small welder to put it together and access 
> to a lathe but really there's no great precision required in it's 
> construction. I've described it's construction on my web site listed 
> below. hopefully it will be of interest to some of you.
>
>   


-- 
Don Fanning
http://00100100.net

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