Whitehall
Super Member
Finally got my antenna rotator installed and operational today. I was hoping to work it Saturday but the rain made that unwise.
Got a Zenith unit, same as Centronics but slightly different cosmetics - $59 plus shipping for the Zenith and about $40 for the control cable and stub mast bought a Schad's, a local shop. The Channel Master is slightly higher quality but its control box is set up for remote control use. Zenith/Centronics have complete remotes too but since I'll be sitting in my easy chair with a set of headphones on and a glass of Scotch and the tuner/reciever at hand, a control box with complete local controls made more sense for me - I'll probably lose the remote since I won't be using it.
Although my antenna was already fixed on a mast, I decided to brace the chimney a bit for the increased loading. It's a short stub so I bought a pair of 4 foot angle irons (1"x1"x an eighth thick) then hack sawed them into four 2' lengths. I slipped these under the strapping on each corner of the brickwork. This prevents wastage on the brick from rubbing and transfers the loads a bit better. Cost - $10 plus a spare hacksaw blade. Took only about 15 minutes to make the two cuts and to cut the stub mast to 3 foot and then file the cuts.
Bought a nifty engineer's compass to align the end point. Since the rotator only covers 360 degrees, someplace has to be the end point. Normally one would have the end point at North (0 degree). That way, the control box readout will read 0 deg or 360 deg at the end point. However, I'm surrounded by stations but San Francisco and Oakland, etc are to the North so I used due South as the end point making the readouts 180 degrees off - I can handle it, I hope.
So far, it's great! Finally, I get KPIG in Santa Cruz, a worthy successor to the infamous KFAT, that rocks out some heavy blues. Their request line is 408-PIG-LARD.
Even picked up a Monterey station loud and clear although the classical station in Carmel (KBOQ) is only 1700 watts and is walked over by more local stations with my current tuners and receivers. It would take a super-tuner to pick up this one. Mine are good but not that good.
More fun will be had - so far, so good.
Got a Zenith unit, same as Centronics but slightly different cosmetics - $59 plus shipping for the Zenith and about $40 for the control cable and stub mast bought a Schad's, a local shop. The Channel Master is slightly higher quality but its control box is set up for remote control use. Zenith/Centronics have complete remotes too but since I'll be sitting in my easy chair with a set of headphones on and a glass of Scotch and the tuner/reciever at hand, a control box with complete local controls made more sense for me - I'll probably lose the remote since I won't be using it.
Although my antenna was already fixed on a mast, I decided to brace the chimney a bit for the increased loading. It's a short stub so I bought a pair of 4 foot angle irons (1"x1"x an eighth thick) then hack sawed them into four 2' lengths. I slipped these under the strapping on each corner of the brickwork. This prevents wastage on the brick from rubbing and transfers the loads a bit better. Cost - $10 plus a spare hacksaw blade. Took only about 15 minutes to make the two cuts and to cut the stub mast to 3 foot and then file the cuts.
Bought a nifty engineer's compass to align the end point. Since the rotator only covers 360 degrees, someplace has to be the end point. Normally one would have the end point at North (0 degree). That way, the control box readout will read 0 deg or 360 deg at the end point. However, I'm surrounded by stations but San Francisco and Oakland, etc are to the North so I used due South as the end point making the readouts 180 degrees off - I can handle it, I hope.
So far, it's great! Finally, I get KPIG in Santa Cruz, a worthy successor to the infamous KFAT, that rocks out some heavy blues. Their request line is 408-PIG-LARD.
Even picked up a Monterey station loud and clear although the classical station in Carmel (KBOQ) is only 1700 watts and is walked over by more local stations with my current tuners and receivers. It would take a super-tuner to pick up this one. Mine are good but not that good.
More fun will be had - so far, so good.