Been a bit under the weather, so I've been taking it a bit easy.
We got clobbered with another .75" of rain last night. Started about 0300 and woke me up it was raining so hard. No flooding and no mudslide I've heard of, so all is well here.
Have a brunch appointment Tuesday morning at one of my favorite little places, The Think Cafe in San Pedro, and then on to the L.A. Maritime Museum to troubleshoot the antenna rotator....again!
From the descriptions given by the operators at K6AA, the rotator is malfunctioning. It might be a loose wire on the back of the control unit, or the direction indicating potentiometer up in the rotor head may have gone TU. Since none of us are "certified" to climb the tower, and lack the now required insurance, if it is the rotor head, that'll mean hiring the guy we use to come out and swap the rotor head out with one we'll have to order if our troubleshooting leads to that problem.
Here's hoping it's just a loose connection on the back, as between ordering up a rebuilt rotor and paying the guy to swap it out, that's about $600 the club would rather not spend!
Good luck - I hope it's a problem which your club can diagnose & repair without great expenditure.
ReplyDeleteTurns out it was a very simple "problem".
DeleteBecause the antenna sits at one position for so much of the time, the feedback pot inside the rotor developed a dirty/corroded spot. We ran it back and forth from end-to-end twice, and the "problem" went away.
I hope you don't have the crud that's been going around up here, man it's nasty.
ReplyDeleteGet to feeling better and good luck, fingers crossed, on your troubleshooting efforts!
This was just a minor cold. The sniffles, sneezing, and cough have subsided.
DeleteThe rotor problem was a non-problem caused by it sitting in one spot for too long.
I've been watching the extreme weather out your way. One weather forecaster said this will all be great for the area in terms of the drought, assuming you can survive the current deluge.
ReplyDeleteThey've been getting hammered further North up by the SF Bay. I think I heard on the radio that they've gotten over 4 inches of rain so far this moth!
DeleteWe've only had some minor street flooding and a few minor mudslides down this way, but yeah, it's going to be a good year for the snow pack in the rockies.
Wow! That's a lot for a tower climb.
ReplyDeleteThe rotor by itself is $300, and IIRC, he charges $200~$250 to come out and do a rotor swap.
DeleteIt's the business he's in, and he has certified climbing equipment that requires inspection every six months, and "climbing insurance" in addition to the liability insurance he carries.
I talked to him the last time he came out, and he said he couldn't afford to start the company today because the insurance companies charge "excessive rates" for people who haven't been in this business for years, and have a proven safety record.