I am looking to upgrade my ant from fixed to rotor, If I were to spend the money, what would be the best no hassle rotator I Should get?
I am sure there will be lots of good ideas come from this, but for what it is worth I will give you my nickels worth.
I have tried lots of ways. Used U100 series rotors, handmade types from ventilation damper motors to stepper motors, and old TVRO jack drives. In the end I have used the Yaesu G5500/5400 for most of my time. I have bought used and regreassed them, even repaired the odd controller. I have never bought new though.
I have had 2 of them in 10 years. I have never had any burn out or fail from any use. I take the satellite system down about every 5 years for maintenance, which means taking apart the rotors for inspection and greasing. The only time I have ever replaced one, is to upgrade from 5400 to 5500, when I added 1296 and 2304 beams in hope of AO-40 and AO-???.
From what I read most failures are from installation errors, or living in the salt areas of the oceans. Living here in the cold climate of Canadian winters, I find they work great. And no I do not have shares in the company.
But it comes down to the type of operator you are. For me, I wanted something that works and can be controlled by automatic means with no hassles. That is why I stay with the Yaesu units. I guess it comes down to do you want to operate, or have fun designing, building, or repairing other units.