Rotator Wi-Fi

[Pollypurabred]

My neighbor is having problem with their Wi-Fi, panel antenna (12 X 18) so they purchased a Channel Master CM-9521A rotatory actuator/controller.

BTW: unit reviews are 50/50 unless one goes up to a ham rotator which I do not believe they investigated.

What I am looking for are people who have experience with this unit and especially with the mounting. Specs for this unit state that a 5 foot, 2" steel mast would not pose a torque problem for this unit. However watching the unit operate I can visuallly see stalling/hesitation with this unit. I have not checked this unit out up close but the specs say unit must be plumb, , able to withstand length/torque binding while remaining plumb, plus the rest of the normal stuff.

Now my question is that could I replace the 2" steel, 5' ft mast with a schedule 80, 1 1/2" plastic pipe and not have problems. Not worrying about strength but more about whip/steadiness since they are not turning a antenna but a 18 X 24" panel antenna. Not too worried about torque but about remaining true to its position as there is not any feedback for this unit.

Anyone with experience with same.

[Pollypurabred]

Well after about 10 days I was called to come over for "coffee" and during my visit a discussion the above unit just happened to come up. Well to make a long story short, he had ran the wrong size wiring, 28 instead of 20 AWG, his mast looked like it ran East/West as it was 12 degrees from plumb and 2 feet too long as specs say 3 feet max.

So after making all these changes and sync up the unit, it does work pretty good with 69 programmable set points and a nice IR remote (also work with Dave/DN universals). So his next project is to add an OTA antenna to the mix (beam of 131" max/spec) and probably more coffee.

Actually works good for 90 USD and if you live like they do, 5 miles from anything, then it is worth the money.

[Terryl]

I would have gone with a good omni antenna, you wouldnt have to move it around with a rotor.

One like this would work.


http://www.radiolabs.com/products/antennas/2.4gig/11dbomni.php

And the jerking you see is the clutch disengaging and the backlash in the gears, it's looking for a good sized TV antenna to turn so it's applying a lot of torque on start up.

[Pollypurabred]

Actually the flat panel antenna he already had, specs say Wifi-35db gain, along with 50 feet of active USB 2.0 cabling so he use what he had. I had enough trouble to get him to buy 300 ft of 3 conductor (+-18 Vac) 20AWG UV cable to drive the rotator.

I am not a big fan of designing or doing a task more than once. I did check out that omni antenna and it sure would of made the mounting and the job a lot easier. I'll bookmark that site....tks

[satchick]

I've got one of those rotators, I'm not sure how old it is, it came with the house when I bought it. Never had a problem though, it moves my antenna with a 12' beam just fine, and holds it in place pretty well in high winds. I don't use it all that often, just to bump the antenna left or right a few degrees as needed.

I don't know if this makes a difference (maybe Terryl would know?) but the rotor is mounted inside the top section of the tower instead of being clamped onto a short pipe. It seems like the top section would take away some of the stresses from wind/ice.

[Terryl]

Mounting a rotor inside the tower will take a lot of load off the base, using a thrust bearing at the top will take out the rest.

If the rotor has a mast clamp top and bottom then there is no stress relief on the rotor, all the weight goes thru the rotor.

With a tower base mount it transfers to the tower, my setup uses a base mount rotor and a thrust bearing, the trust bearing takes all the weight off the rotor and transfers it to the tower.

Most TV rotors can handle up to a 130" long TV antenna, after that you have to use the top of the line channel master or go to a ham rotor. (Yaesu GX 450)

[Pollypurabred]

I did look into thrust bearings and according to the CM site they state that they make one for this unit. BUT every site I visited people were complaining that this thrust bearing (TB105, I believe) does not work.

After working with him I started looking around at towers and actually the tower itself is probably the cheapest part of the system. The prep work seems to be the big cost. Now guys I am not talking a monster tower (this township nothing higher then 36 feet and only if a residual unit) but I did see a 24 foot bracket tower for 485 USD/32' for 610 USD which includes all the hardware, rotor base mount, etc., and requires no special base. Um....maybe