Rotor cable

[RoadRunner]

Has anyone here ever tried running rotor cable a long distance like 500+ft i've heard after so many feet you will have voltage problems. didn't know if it was possible or if there where any tricks to it.

 

[KC2OST]

Has anyone here ever tried running rotor cable a long distance like 500+ft i've heard after so many feet you will have voltage problems. didn't know if it was possible or if there where any tricks to it.

More then likely you will have a voltage drop.
That is a long run. You will need to beef up the wires.

 

[W5LZ]

At 500 feet I think I'd start looking around for some VERY heavy cable. Might even consider making your own. Where in the world would you have a 500 foot run?
- 'Doc

 

[RoadRunner]

where i'm at is kinda in a valley and i have a pretty big hill behind the house so i had an idea about doing a beam install on it. its probably more than it would be worth but its an idea

 

[W5LZ]

A 500 foot run of rotor cable wouldn't exactly be cheap, but the same run of feed line will really not be cheap. Maybe even cheaper to move?
- 'Doc

 

[W5LZ]

The problem would be the long run of very small wire that carries the voltage/current to the rotor. Depending on the length of run the losses can get quite large, not allowing enough voltage/current to get to the rotor to make it move. The same thing applies to the indicator which receives a signal from the rotor to move the pointer. If you make the wires in the control cable large enough it ought to work fine. But you are not talking about the average rotor cable, or even the heavy-duty cable, anymore.
You could 'remote' the whole thing, several ways of doing that I'd think. Simplest would be to just remote the whole station and just run the cable back to the house. Also probably the most expensive, but you wouldn't need all that feed line - LOL.
- 'Doc

 

[airplane1]

It would prob be cheaper to build a small shack on the hill with your tower and antennas.