Thailand based member and DA-RC Continental Coordinator for ASIA, 153DA012 Andre, has been eyeing off the new Portable Rotation 12 Volt Ultra-Portable Rotor system as an addition to his portable station.
After reading about the new-fangled radio comms product on Facebook, Andre – one of our club’s keen dx adventurers – was quick to look further into the DXcessory, nominating the Model as one worth investigating further for antennas weighing less than 8 pounds.
Designed for the Amateur Radio Portable Enthusiast by Amateur Radio Operators, this system is built with a simple to use interface allowing easy ops while still offering advanced features like ‘Auto Rotation’ and ‘Any-Direction Calibration’. The heart of the system is a microprocessor that takes user input from 3 buttons and then controls the antenna motion, displaying antenna heading and other information on a LCD screen.
User provided info is saved in internal memory along with antenna heading data; the controller can be turned off when not being used to conserve power while no user or heading data is lost.
The System supports a standard USB Computer interface for remote computer control. The system is designed to turn antennas as large as the Super Antenna YP-3; 3 element Beam, and is ideal, according to 153DA012 Andre, for handling outstanding DXpedition antennas like the Skypper, Moxon and Bambi made famous by DA-RC member 30DA016 Dave in Spain.
Options include a Carry Bag, Extension Rotor Cable, and Antenna Mast Adapter kit for Buddipole antennas.
Other key features include:
- Nominal rotation speed of 1RPM
- Easy 3 button user interface with backlight 2×8 character LCD and 2 Notification LEDs
- Full 360 degree rotation control – rotation stops at +/- 180 degrees from North. +/- 1 Degree Resolution
- PWM motor control with two user controlled turning speeds
- Manual antenna rotation control
- Automatic antenna rotation – set and forget
- User programmable display message
- ‘Any-Direction Calibration’ offering easy antenna system deployment
- Antenna Rotation Jam detection with auto stop
- 4 Conductor Rotor Cable (50 foot length provided)
- USB Computer interface supporting the GS232A/B Rotator Control Protocol
- 40mA idle current, less than 200mA normal turning current at 12 Volts
# To download the User Manual, CLICK HERE.
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