Pre-winter antennawork in progress (2)

One last view on the summer
setup...

Well, the weather forecast was not really good for today but it was at least dry in the morning. I decided to dismantle all the antennas in my tower and change them for the HF vertical and the 10m 4 element LFA beam. The summer antennas are in the garage again now. Not shure if I will install the 6m beam next summer? I might try a 4m beam for a change, something I will decide next year when the ES-season is approaching.

First of all I was thinking about my CG3000 autotuner. You all remember what happened in june 2018 with all the water in my tuner, I don't want to have that again. Personally I do think it is condensation after all and the water formed over the years I got the tuner in the mast. So I drilled a small hole in the bottom of the tuner to ventilate the inside, to keep the water outside I mounted a small tube in the hole.


The tuner and the vertical have to be mounted isolated from the tower to perform well. So I needed to extend the antenna mounting tube. It took some effort but I managed to slam a glasfiber tube, I previously used for the 80m horizontal loop, into the top. I mounted the vertical and the tuner without any problems. After that the beam which I already prepared was mounted. It took time to route al the wires...

Now, I need to turn the tower up, rotate the antenna and turn the tower down again in order to mount the radial for the vertical. But unfortunately the weather changed as forecasted. Actually it kept raining...and raining. And when it got dark it was still raining. No further antennawork was possible. Have to wait till tomorrow...

So, now the tower is up and waiting...so far the SWR on the LFA is very good. I hope the vertical will be working as well as soon as it is ready tomorrow...hopefully the weather is better.

Create RC5-3 shortcomings

The Create RC5-3 is a populair rotator for radioamateurs around the world. It is a mechanically simple device, no bearings, wormwheel and a few gearwheels. Because of the wormwheel there is no real "break" to prevent stress on the rotator. However, this design has shortcomings.

See my first posts about the Create RC5-3:

https://pe4bas.blogspot.com/2017/10/create-rc5-3-rotor-overhaul.html
https://pe4bas.blogspot.com/2017/10/create-rc5-3-rotor-overhaul-2.html

I sold the rotator to PD1RP Peter. He rotated his big 3 element SteppIR with it and his Create was broken. So it was a excellent replacement.

The damage

However, the big SteppIR was too much for the rotator and it just broke the teeth off the aluminium gearwheels in a storm. It is unknown to me why they use weaker aluminium gearwheels instead of steel ones? I guess it is just the prize, although this is not a cheap rotator!

Peter has send me this rotator for repair and also send me 2 other old Create RC5 rotators so I probabely could use parts from them. I discovered the oldest RC5 actually had steel gearwheels and they were still intact. Unfortunately the big gearwheel does not fit into the newer create but the smaller gearwheel does with some modification...

Small mod on top. Filed 1mm
off the edges so it fits below
the big gearwheel.

After inspection of the old Create rotators I saw something else that worries me, it's worn on the axle of the small gearwheel that drives the big gearwheel. It seems this little gearwheel gets a lot of stress. Normally there should be a bearing in the gearwheel to deal with it. But there is non.This rotator is build for a small to medium antennas. Though after my experience I would use it only for small antennas.

In total I had 3 broken RC5-3 rotators now. Luckely there was on axle that had no worn and I used the steel gearwheel of the oldest rotator to replace the broken one. Peter had already replaced the big gearwheel although that one is still aluminium.

I found I am not the only one writing about this kind of damage on this rotator. DL4MW had similair damage to his Create and writes about it already in 2011. It is in German language though. But pictures are universal...

Schaden am Antennenrotor Create RC5-3 (Teil 1)
Schadensanalyse am Antennenrotor Create RC5-3 (Teil 2)

Interesting stuff...

Peter has bought a better rotator now which can easily turn his SteppIR and can stand a big storm, The repaired rotator will be used by the PA6AA contestgroup.

Pre-winter antennawork in progress

A day off the job gives me some extra time for the hobby. Although....I had some chores to finish first around the house. Besides that I had to go to a oculist with my daughter in the afternoon as well. So after all there was just about 2 hours left for the hobby.

I started the day early since I had to bring my daughter to school first. When at breakfast I already got HamAlert messages on my phone that several stations did spot XE1H on 60m. I have been chasing for Mexico on 60m already a few mornings but never succeeded. So, after breakfast I checked my station remotely through my android tablet if XE1H was received. Nothing seen unfortunately....but 15 minutes later I saw a weak report. A few minutes later I saw reports increasing and I decided to try. First his trace on the waterfall was gone again, some QSB? I almost gave up on it....then suddenly I received his report. I was surprised. Mexico is one of the most difficult parts of the world to reach for me. I only worked XE on 10m before in 2011 when propagation was a bit better.

Anyway, this was a good start of my day...back to antenna business. I have a 10m 4 element LFA on loan from our contestgroup PA6AA. It previously belonged to contestgroup PA6GR and bought by PA7NTH Nanne. However with the low 10m propagation we do not intend to use it for contest these days (years). What I want is to compare this beam with my 10m homemade HB9CV which is a excellent performer. Therefore I did some tests with PA4O with the HB9CV last week and noted everything down for later comparisation. It is my intention to mount the LFA in the mast this weekend so I already have it ready. The 6m beam and HB9CV will be in the garage this winter. Sounds crazy doesn't it. Why mounting a 10m beam in the mast at this time? Well, I know this isn't the best time but I like to experiment with antennas. Besides that I still have plans for a 5 band quad but haven't got time to construct the thing yet and certainly not before the winter. I would be a nice challenge for next year!!! If all goes well I will also replace the W2000 UHF/VHF vertical for my HF multiband vertical. I have been thinking how to do this and I think I found the ultimate solution....more on that in probabely the next post...