[amsat-bb] Re: Setup Complications

[Ted]

Joel, don't forget to consider an Elk on a rat shack (or other) rotor.
Manually aim it watching your software..1 feed line...nice gain...low
profile and much more efficient that the QFH & Lindy. Very cost efficient. I
have pix and some construction notes on request

GL, Ted
K7TRK

-----Original Message-----
From: amsat-bb-bounces at amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces at amsat.org] On
Behalf Of Joel Black
Sent: Friday, December 20, 2013 4:35 AM
To: Amsat BB
Subject: [amsat-bb] Setup Complications

This is not going as smoothly as I had anticipated (does anything ever go as
anticipated?).

I had initially planned on using my Arrow II antenna without the diplexer
and an old Alliance U-110 rotor. As you'll read below, that doesn't look
like it will happen anytime soon.

Even though the group was helpful trying to get the Alliance U-110 rotor
controller synced (sunc?) up, It does not work reliably. It will turn in one
direction, but not the other. I do not have the money to send the controller
off for repair and Norm doesn't repair the U-100's and -110's. I could buy
one from him, but again, that's money that isn't in the budget. After this
issue, I took the controller apart and after a couple of hours, I finally
get it to step in one direction correctly, but I cannot get it to go in the
opposite direction. Shorting the shaft to the contacts in the controller
rotates the rotor correctly so I am fairly certain the rotor is good - I
have a controller issue. The online diagrams show a blow-up of the parts,
but not now to correctly put it back together (there is a tab on the back of
the black dial face and I'm not sure where that or the contacts on the
actual geared dial go. I'm going to reluctantly email Norm and ask him, but
he does this as a business and I don't want to interfere with that. In the
past, he has been nice enough to offer advice though. I'm still playing with
it and it hasn't "whooped" me yet.

For now, I do *not* have a rotor I can use. I am looking at purchasing
another controller if I'm too stupid for Norm to help ;) . They're fairly
cheap on the "Bay of E."

Without a reliable rotor, my pursuit has led me to QFH and Lindenblad
antennas. Which of the two would be the better performer? I have found the
pages with build instructions, but what do folks here think. I know they
will be poor performers compared to CP yagis, I'm not looking for that
comparison. I understand they're omni antennas with CP. I'm okay with that.
I realize I'm not concentrating all of my RF in a narrow beam width. That's
okay too. Yep, I will be disappointed. I'm disappointed now with the rotor
controller. :)

I had initially thought that I'd put whatever I got inside the attic. 
With an omni, that probably wouldn't be prudent. I have enough coax for two
runs to the chimney about 60' away.

So, any thoughts comparing the QFH to the Lindy?

Again, thanks for all the help getting me going again.

73,
Joel - W4JBB
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