Alfa-Spid AzEl Rotator Experiences or Recommendations?
Hi,
It is beginning to look as if it is time to replace my venerable Yaesu rotators after 20 years of abuse. I was wondering what experience people have had with the "new" AzEl rotator? (The http://www.alfaradio.ca/alfaspid.html web page calling it the "new" rotator was last updated in 2003, so that is probably any relatively recent purchase.) Doing the Google and checking eHam picked up a lot of discussion, but mostly of the standard Az rotators. The reports are mostly highly positive, with a small minority complaining of flimsy electrical connectors and gears. The latter seem to apply to older units. The M2 units are certainly impressive, but physically large enough to be a problem, as well as being pricey.
TNX es 73s,
Alan WA4SCA
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There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture from such a trifling investment of fact.
Mark Twain
Hi,
I have had an alpha spid az/el rotator for over 12 months now and have found it to be an excellent unit.
It is mechanically very robust and turns my 5 el 2m X yagi and 19 el 70cms X yagi with ease. The Spid will run on AC or DC. After a few months running on my shack 13.8V supply I decided to buy a toroidal transformer with 20V output and make a dedicated PSU for the Spid. This proved to be much better in that the rotation time for a full 360 degrees is now reduced to 61 seconds. The "mouse" control is a very nice extra feature, very handy on the operating desk.
If you go for full computer control for az/el it is fairly easy to set up, I used the tracking program Orbitron.
I can only speak for the UK distributor Braeside Communications, whose service and responsiveness to questions was first class, even getting e-mail responses back quickly at the weekend.
Criticisms - the manual supplied for the UK could have benefited from a few improvements, which I believe are in hand.
Tips - follow the recommendation to allow plenty of cable drop from your antennas. The spid can travel past 360 degrees and could pull the cables out if you don't have enough slack. Keep a note of the pin outs and cable colours back to your shack, just in case you need to do repairs in the future.
73 John G7HIA
ps/ no connection with the companies other than as as satisfied customer.
John,
Precisely the kind of practical experience I am looking for. I have an M2 22 element CP on 2 meters and 42 element CP on 70 cms, plus a 42 element 23 cm beam and a small 13 cm dish. The Yaesu rotators have handled them for years with careful balancing, but it looks as if the elevation rotator has packed it in. With luck it is just the starting capacitor, but we shall see when I crack it open. Even if fixable, it is probably time, one last time, to install something which should handle any reasonable growth.
Again, thanks for the tips.
Alan WA4SCA
participants (2)
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Alan P. Biddle -
john heath