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CX2SA > SATDIG 05.10.20 20:35l 768 Lines 32193 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : AMSATBB15398
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Subj: AMSAT-BB-digest V15 398
Path: IW8PGT<IZ3LSV<DB0ERF<OK0NAG<OK0NBR<SV1CMG<ON0AR<OZ5BBS<CX2SA
Sent: 201005/1825Z @:CX2SA.SAL.URY.SOAM #:41046 [Salto] FBB7.00e $:AMSATBB15398
From: CX2SA@CX2SA.SAL.URY.SOAM
To : SATDIG@WW
Today's Topics:
1. Re: Did anyone archive Clive's UO-11 website? Or, do you have
any of the .zip files? (Douglas Quagliana)
2. K7ZOO at DM46fx now thru 0300Z (Curt Laumann)
3. ...after 40 years.... Finally Found Myself Back On AO-7
!!!!!! (Curt Laumann)
4. Re: Yaesu G-5500 meters and readings to LVB tracker not
working (Burns Fisher)
5. Re: Happy 27th Birthday, AO-27 (John Brier)
6. K7ZOO roving photo from norther Arizona DM46fx (Curt Laumann)
7. Re: Yaesu G-5500 meters and readings to LVB tracker not
working (kb2mjeff@???.????
8. Re: K7ZOO roving photo from norther Arizona DM46fx (Doug Person)
9. G5500/G5500DC/G5400 Rotor Problems (john@??????.????
10. Re: G5500/G5500DC/G5400 Rotor Problems (Burns Fisher)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Sun, 4 Oct 2020 00:20:14 -0500
From: Douglas Quagliana <dquagliana@?????.???>
To: AMSAT -BB <amsat-bb@?????.???>
Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Did anyone archive Clive's UO-11 website? Or,
do you have any of the .zip files?
Message-ID:
<CALaYSmnvVKcJye4iE874XNa6GGfaj9b5fwhKrVtrYg5TRL+dXA@????.?????.???>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Friends,
I was pointed to Clive's old UO-11 website, which he maintained up
until sometime in 2008, and I was able to get the UO-11 telemetry files up
to 2008 and part of 2008.
However, Clive's more recent website, which he maintained during and
after 2008, had telemetry that included 2009 through 2013. You can see the
archive of the page that lists the telemetry files at
https://web.archive.org/web/20140401110920/http://www.g3cwv.co.uk/tlmarch.htm
but if you click on any of the links for the telemetry from 2009 to 2013,
then the Internet Archive tells you that it did not archive that zip file
with that year's telemetry.
Does anyone have copies of the telemetry from 2008 to 2013 or telemetry
after 2013? The files would be 2008tlm.zip, 2009tlm.zip, and so on up to
2013tlm.zip. Does anybody have copies of these files that they downloaded
from Clive's more recent site and/or the WOD telemetry from anytime after
2008?
73,
Douglas KA2UPW/5
On Wed, Sep 30, 2020 at 1:29 AM Douglas Quagliana <dquagliana@?????.???>
wrote:
> Friends,
>
> Clive Wallis, G3CWV, used to maintain a website with lots of UO-11
> information, recordings and telemetry. Unfortunately, he became a silent
> key in 2015.
>
> I recently tried to go to Clive's UO-11 website,
> http://g3cwv.co.uk/oscar11.htm, and discovered that is no longer on the
> web. I tried the Internet Archive's Wayback machine and found that they
> had archived most of the HTML pages, but not the zip files with the
> telemetry and recordings.
>
> Did anyone make an archive or a copy of Clive's website? Or, did you
> ever download and save any of the .zip files with the audio recordings or
> telemetry? If so, I would like to get copies of the .zip files with the
> recordings and telemetry.
>
> 73,
> Douglas KA2UPW/5
>
>
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Sun, 4 Oct 2020 16:20:48 -0600
From: Curt Laumann <curt.laumann@?????.???>
To: AMSAT-BB@?????.???
Subject: [amsat-bb] K7ZOO at DM46fx now thru 0300Z
Message-ID:
<CAD7_4hxxYHX9nZL1dQkbm82JoB6D07yAbefZbLAb9maMjLbx0g@????.?????.???>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Working:
CAS4A
CAS4B
XW series
AO73
Hope to catch you OTA :)
Curt
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Sun, 4 Oct 2020 17:15:24 -0600
From: Curt Laumann <curt.laumann@?????.???>
To: AMSAT-BB@?????.???
Subject: [amsat-bb] ...after 40 years.... Finally Found Myself Back On
AO-7 !!!!!!
Message-ID:
<CAD7_4hwjo3-8XiNuftSXPd-ff98WPSLEtBug=A9PjtP1wsWL7w@????.?????.???>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Unreal. I last heard myself on AO-7 over 40 years ago (using an
OSCARLocator), and finally heard my sigs again this afternoon. It looks
like the uplink freq shifted about 2.1 KHz, and there's a bit of chirp, but
I look forward to making an actual QSO through this piece of history !!!!
de K7ZOO
------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Sun, 4 Oct 2020 19:19:22 -0400
From: Burns Fisher <wb1fj-bb@??????.??>
To: John Brier <johnbrier@?????.???>
Cc: AMSAT BB <amsat-bb@?????.???>
Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Yaesu G-5500 meters and readings to LVB
tracker not working
Message-ID:
<CABX7KxWie6UKhmDE_6gHaBcUFCcOgRz6LqDLRpuqrJ0i3S9Gog@????.?????.???>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Oh, you were tapping the CONTROL BOX! I totally missed that.
One problem I have had is with those darned screw terminals. It is really
easy to get the wires shorted--I put all of my wires in eye terminals, but
I had a strand of wire sticking out in one case, and in another the angle
of the terminal moved around and touched another. I finally bent them so
the wires all feed in at 90 degrees to the screw/loop. Maybe a bit
obvious, but...
73,
Burns WB1FJ
On Sat, Oct 3, 2020 at 9:04 PM John Brier via AMSAT-BB <amsat-bb@?????.???>
wrote:
> Thanks Jim.
>
> So, I did that a dozen times for the azimuth side and it didn't make much
> of a difference. It did start reading (instead of staying at around 0),
> going to about 180, but never much beyond that that. And eventually it
> seemed to get stuck again.
>
> However, when I started doing the same for the elevation rotator I noticed
> that the cable jacket was falling out of the connector. The rubber and the
> connector wasn't compressing the jacket so there was presumably stress on
> the wires. When I pushed the cable in the connector the meter started
> reading right.
>
> There is a similar issue on the connector on the cable I am using for
> azimuth but pushing it in towards the connector or wiggling it doesn't seem
> to help.
>
> I think I am going to redo these cables. They came with the rotator and
> there is also a disconnect a few feet from the rotator connectors. Not sure
> what for. The connector there is wrapped in electrical tape so I am not
> sure what state it is in.
>
> One question: If the issue is in the rotator or a connection issue at the
> rotator, why would tapping the control box affect the issue?
>
> The only thing I can think of is there could be another issue in the box
> (connection or otherwise).
>
>
> 73, John Brier KG4AKV
>
> On Sat, Oct 3, 2020, 18:12 Jim Walls via AMSAT-BB <amsat-bb@?????.???>
> wrote:
>
> >
> > <snip>
> >
> > Sounds like the position pots in the rotor (not the controller) are
> > dirty. That does make some sense with it not being used for several
> > years. Step one (the easy way) is to use the manual control levers on
> > the controller and repeatedly move the rotors from end to end while
> > watching the needles. If you are a bit lucky, after a few passes back
> > and forth, the needles will start responding correctly. Keep trying at
> > least a dozen full passes back and forth before giving up on this
> > method. The next method requires disassembly of the rotor - now you
> > know why I suggest giving the first method lots of tries before giving
> > up on it. If you have to resort to the second method, I will let
> > someone who has done that more recently than I (about 20 years) give
> > instructions.
> >
> > --
> > 73
> > -------------------------------------
> > Jim Walls - K6CCC
> > jim@?????.???
> > Ofc: 818-548-4804
> > http://members.dslextreme.com/users/k6ccc/
> > AMSAT Member 32537 - WSWSS Member 395
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Sent via AMSAT-BB@?????.???. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available
> > to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership.
> Opinions
> > expressed
> > are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of
> > AMSAT-NA.
> > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite
> program!
> > Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
> >
> _______________________________________________
> Sent via AMSAT-BB@?????.???. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available
> to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions
> expressed
> are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of
> AMSAT-NA.
> Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program!
> Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
>
------------------------------
Message: 5
Date: Sun, 4 Oct 2020 21:23:58 -0400
From: John Brier <johnbrier@?????.???>
To: Stephan Greene <ks1g04@?????.???>
Cc: Amsat-bb <amsat-bb@?????.???>
Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Happy 27th Birthday, AO-27
Message-ID:
<CALn0fKOLqWCwuG5srr5UKoNBrzHvF5JZxti3DBPYz3J1OLLkAw@????.?????.???>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Happy belated birthday AO-27!
Congrats on resurrecting this transponder!
AO-27 was one of the sats I worked in my initial experiment with sats
in 2000. It's very cool to use it again today.
I was just on it on a 10 degree max elevation pass to the west and it
sounded great and was easy to get into.
73, John Brier KG4AKV
On Sun, Sep 27, 2020 at 5:27 PM Stephan Greene via AMSAT-BB
<amsat-bb@?????.???> wrote:
>
> Happy 27th birthday to AMRAD-Oscar 27, still alive and operating today!
>
> For an amateur radio satellite operator in the early 1990s, working on a
> satellite project based on the AMSAT Microsat design was a dream job!
>
> The hams on the team (including Dino Lorenzini, Mark Kanawati, Steve Greene
> and Mike Wyrick) couldn't help but include an amateur radio payload, and
> were successful with the help of fellow amateurs and the local Vienna,
> Virginia Amateur Research and Development (AMRAD) group: Paul Renaldo,
> Andre Castillot, Dave Rogers, Glenn Baumgartner, Sandy Sanders, Matt
> Butcher, Randy Mays, and Terry Fox, and with help from AMSAT?s Lyle
> Johnson, Chuck Green, and Jim White, among many others.
>
> EYESAT-1/AO-27 launched (with the amateur payload and an extra UHF antenna
> for the downlink) at 0145 UTC September 26, 1993. [Ariane-4 V59 also
> launched amateur satellites KO-25, IO-26, and PO-28, SSTL?s Healthsat-2,
> the Stella research satellite, and the Spot-3 earth observation
> satellite.] The satellite was commanded on during the next orbit and the
> first QSO on the amateur payload was made the following morning on
> September 27, 1993. (We think ? does anyone have an archive of amsat-bb
> emails from 1993 who can check?)
>
> AO-27 was the first FM ?bent pipe? satellite and proved to be easy to work
> with a strong downlink and sensitive receiver. The amateur FM repeater has
> served many Hams worldwide and was one of the first ?Easy Sats?. AO-27 was
> later used for the first successful D-Star mode satellite QSO. The 800km
> orbit provides continent-spanning coverage. At least one station is known
> to have worked 49 states solely via AO-27!
>
> And here we are today, the 27th of September, 2020, celebrating the 27th
> birthday of AO-27!
>
> Thanks to Mike Wyrick N3UC who babysat the spacecraft for the last 27 years.
>
> And thanks to all those who helped. There are many untold stories and
> photos we hope to share in the near future.
>
> Current information on AO-27?s operating schedule is at www.ao27.net
>
> 73
>
> Mark, Mike, Steve (N4TPY, N3UC, KS1G)
> _______________________________________________
> Sent via AMSAT-BB@?????.???. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available
> to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions
expressed
> are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of
AMSAT-NA.
> Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program!
> Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
------------------------------
Message: 6
Date: Sun, 4 Oct 2020 21:50:05 -0700
From: Curt Laumann <curt.laumann@?????.???>
To: AMSAT-BB@?????.???
Subject: [amsat-bb] K7ZOO roving photo from norther Arizona DM46fx
Message-ID:
<CAD7_4hx=df+NTmN-CG_kw9jgA3j_jmEb=cLsbHGJgVmr8SPShA@????.?????.???>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Hi All,
This past weekend I had a chance to rove in two grids, DM36 and DM46. I
struggled to get into any FM birds (only one QSO), but easily made many
contacts through transponder satellites, using both SSB and CW.
This was my first opporunity to really wring out two recently completed
LIndeblad antennas. Overall I'm pretty pleased with their performance. At
times I had to back down the power of my IC-910H to 5 watts to match the
beacon signal strength. Of course a pair of circularly polarized yagi's
will have more gain, but for portable operations the pair of Lindy's does
great.
At the link below you can see my setup, including the brand new tire on my
right rear wheel :)
See you on the air,
Curt / K7ZOO
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YJ6QpQKl1FJGIZ7DdiwLy9sdpWZOSdOE/view?usp=sha
ring
------------------------------
Message: 7
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 2020 09:12:12 -0400
From: <kb2mjeff@???.???>
To: <amsat-bb@?????.???>, "'John Brier'" <johnbrier@?????.???>
Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Yaesu G-5500 meters and readings to LVB
tracker not working
Message-ID: <085001d69b19$240d7e00$6c287a00$@???.???>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
When I looked at this message again I thought it might be the loose drive
gear set screw issue . Does the rotor sound like it's turning, but antennas
not moving? If so you will have to take it almost completely apart to get to
the drive gear set screw to apply Loctite, like Yeasu should have done when
they assembled it. I had to do that to one of my 5500 a few years ago. If
you do take it apart for another reason for the failure, make sure to apply
the Loctite anyway.
73 Jeff kb2m
-----Original Message-----
From: AMSAT-BB <amsat-bb-bounces@?????.???> On Behalf Of Burns Fisher via
AMSAT-BB
Sent: Sunday, October 4, 2020 7:19 PM
To: John Brier <johnbrier@?????.???>
Cc: AMSAT BB <amsat-bb@?????.???>
Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Yaesu G-5500 meters and readings to LVB tracker not
working
Oh, you were tapping the CONTROL BOX! I totally missed that.
One problem I have had is with those darned screw terminals. It is really
easy to get the wires shorted--I put all of my wires in eye terminals, but I
had a strand of wire sticking out in one case, and in another the angle
of the terminal moved around and touched another. I finally bent them so
the wires all feed in at 90 degrees to the screw/loop. Maybe a bit obvious,
but...
73,
Burns WB1FJ
On Sat, Oct 3, 2020 at 9:04 PM John Brier via AMSAT-BB <amsat-bb@?????.???>
wrote:
> Thanks Jim.
>
> So, I did that a dozen times for the azimuth side and it didn't make
> much of a difference. It did start reading (instead of staying at
> around 0), going to about 180, but never much beyond that that. And
> eventually it seemed to get stuck again.
>
> However, when I started doing the same for the elevation rotator I
> noticed that the cable jacket was falling out of the connector. The
> rubber and the connector wasn't compressing the jacket so there was
> presumably stress on the wires. When I pushed the cable in the
> connector the meter started reading right.
>
> There is a similar issue on the connector on the cable I am using for
> azimuth but pushing it in towards the connector or wiggling it doesn't
> seem to help.
>
> I think I am going to redo these cables. They came with the rotator
> and there is also a disconnect a few feet from the rotator connectors.
> Not sure what for. The connector there is wrapped in electrical tape
> so I am not sure what state it is in.
>
> One question: If the issue is in the rotator or a connection issue at
> the rotator, why would tapping the control box affect the issue?
>
> The only thing I can think of is there could be another issue in the
> box (connection or otherwise).
>
>
> 73, John Brier KG4AKV
>
> On Sat, Oct 3, 2020, 18:12 Jim Walls via AMSAT-BB <amsat-bb@?????.???>
> wrote:
>
> >
> > <snip>
> >
> > Sounds like the position pots in the rotor (not the controller) are
> > dirty. That does make some sense with it not being used for several
> > years. Step one (the easy way) is to use the manual control levers
> > on the controller and repeatedly move the rotors from end to end
> > while watching the needles. If you are a bit lucky, after a few
> > passes back and forth, the needles will start responding correctly.
> > Keep trying at least a dozen full passes back and forth before
> > giving up on this method. The next method requires disassembly of
> > the rotor - now you know why I suggest giving the first method lots
> > of tries before giving up on it. If you have to resort to the
> > second method, I will let someone who has done that more recently
> > than I (about 20 years) give instructions.
> >
> > --
> > 73
> > -------------------------------------
> > Jim Walls - K6CCC
> > jim@?????.???
> > Ofc: 818-548-4804
> > http://members.dslextreme.com/users/k6ccc/
> > AMSAT Member 32537 - WSWSS Member 395
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Sent via AMSAT-BB@?????.???. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum
> > available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring
membership.
> Opinions
> > expressed
> > are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official
> > views of AMSAT-NA.
> > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite
> program!
> > Subscription settings:
> > https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
> >
> _______________________________________________
> Sent via AMSAT-BB@?????.???. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available
> to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership.
> Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect
> the official views of AMSAT-NA.
> Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program!
> Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
>
_______________________________________________
Sent via AMSAT-BB@?????.???. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all
interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions
expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official
views of AMSAT-NA.
Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program!
Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
------------------------------
Message: 8
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 2020 09:06:18 -0600
From: Doug Person <doug@?????.???>
To: amsat-bb@?????.???
Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] K7ZOO roving photo from norther Arizona DM46fx
Message-ID: <d47220c0-759f-6e2f-e57e-167366df5f5a@?????.???>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed
Hi Curt,
Where did you get the build data for your antennas? I'm using EggBeaters
and they just don't seem to work very well. I'm looking for an
alternative that's not too difficult to build.
73, Doug -- K0DXV
On 10/4/2020 10:50 PM, Curt Laumann via AMSAT-BB wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> This past weekend I had a chance to rove in two grids, DM36 and DM46. I
> struggled to get into any FM birds (only one QSO), but easily made many
> contacts through transponder satellites, using both SSB and CW.
>
> This was my first opporunity to really wring out two recently completed
> LIndeblad antennas. Overall I'm pretty pleased with their performance. At
> times I had to back down the power of my IC-910H to 5 watts to match the
> beacon signal strength. Of course a pair of circularly polarized yagi's
> will have more gain, but for portable operations the pair of Lindy's does
> great.
>
> At the link below you can see my setup, including the brand new tire on my
> right rear wheel :)
>
> See you on the air,
>
> Curt / K7ZOO
>
>
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YJ6QpQKl1FJGIZ7DdiwLy9sdpWZOSdOE/view?usp=sha
ring
> _______________________________________________
> Sent via AMSAT-BB@?????.???. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available
> to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions
expressed
> are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of
AMSAT-NA.
> Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program!
> Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
------------------------------
Message: 9
Date: Mon, 05 Oct 2020 13:42:53 -0400
From: john@??????.???
To: amsat-bb@?????.???
Subject: [amsat-bb] G5500/G5500DC/G5400 Rotor Problems
Message-ID: <a0931c70de3e16e6238429838892d2d3@??????.???>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
You can go back through the amsat-bb archives and find many of the same
problems that are being talked about now. Yaesu rotor problems are not
new and are re-discussed from time to time.
I have a G5500 on my Arizona station. It was installed in 2013 and it
was a used rotor at the time. It worked ok for several years. I had it
tracking Funcube 24x7 for many months and that was probably not a wise
decision considering the potential problems. A few years ago I started
to experience what is being talked about now. The azimuth readings
started to be erratic. The LVB tracker would give up trying to move the
rotor and since I was not there to manually move it, I would use the
park command in SatPC32 to try to get past the intermittent areas. That
would work for a while but soon I could not park the rotor from about
100 degrees back to zero.
So the best option for me was to buy a replacement azimuth rotor (no
control box or elevation rotor). This was a catalog item at many ham
radio supply houses. So last December my son and I replaced the azimuth
rotor with the new Yaesu unit. I thought I would be good for a few
years but that would not be the case. I planned to repair the original
az rotor by replacing the pot and have it available if the rotor should
fail in the future.
In August the rotor started showing signs of the same problem. I
noticed that the actual azimuth was lagging behind what SatPC32 was
sending to the LVB tracker. Eventually it would get past the bad spot
and movement would be normal until it got to another bad area. So the
new rotor only lasted 8 months and I wasn't tracking and downloading
data on any satellite.
So what is different about Arizona? For one thing the temperature gets
to 120F and when the sun shines, as it does most every day, the dark
cclor of the rotor absorbs the heat and the temp inside the rotor is
likely sky high. Could that be a reason that the potentiometer is
failing? Maybe and maybe not.
Several years ago I ordered replacement pots from Yaesu. The shaft on
these pots is metric so 1/4" American made pots will not fit. You are
stuck with metric components. The part number on the replacement pots
is RA25Y25S B501. You can look it up on the web. The specs for this
pot are 15,000 cycles and 100 degrees C. I doubt if the temp inside the
rotor exceeded 100C so it should have held up in the Arizona sun.
15,000 cycles is a lot and you can do the math.
The next question is what is the part number of the pot in my new
azimuth rotor? Did Yaesu change suppliers over the years and what are
the specs of the pots they are using now? Once I disassemble the old
rotor which is in Arizona, I will know if the part number is different
than the replacement pots I purchased. I could send the new rotor back
to Yaesu under warranty and have it repaired, but why do that if the
same pot is used to repair the unit and will likely fail again?
I thought I was alone with this problem but after asking around I found
that that might not be the case. KB6LTY is experiencing the same
problem with a new G5500DC that she purchased not long ago. There
appears to be a systemic problem here. Changing the pot may work for a
while but you can't be taking things apart every year just to have the
same problem occur shortly thereafter. K3RRR reported similar problems
and his story should be told here as well.
Last year Yaesu changed the model number of the G5500 to the G5500DC.
There was no announcement and ham radio dealers knew nothing about the
change. EA4TX who makes replacement control boxes was also unaware of
the change. The motors in the rotors are now DC rather than AC. The
controller is different, but Yaesu did not publish the schematic in
their instruction manual as they did with the G5400/5500 series. One
satellite operator noticed that when SatPC32 sent a command to move the
az and the el at the same time, the control box would go into a fault
condition. Apparently the control box detected an overcurrent condition
due to a high startup current and shut down. I'm not sure if that issue
was resolved by Yaesu or by a software change. Just another thing to be
aware of if you have a new DC model.
Another thing to be aware of is that there are meter amplifiers in the
the control box that are used to isolate and control the output voltage
to interfaces like the LVB tracker. These meter amplifiers can become
erratic rendering the interface unusable. The meters in the control box
are separate so if they are reading properly and don't jump around,
erratic readings going to the computer interface are likely caused by
the meter amplifiers and have nothing to do with the pots in the rotors
themselves.
If you have experienced these kinds of problems and have or have not
resolved them, please post so that we can determine how widespread these
issues are and possible fixes.
73, John K8YSE
------------------------------
Message: 10
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 2020 14:12:37 -0400
From: Burns Fisher <wb1fj-bb@??????.??>
Cc: AMSAT BB <amsat-bb@?????.???>
Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] G5500/G5500DC/G5400 Rotor Problems
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BTW, although John's probably is probably not this (since the issue seems
to be around the control box), I did have a problem with mice chomping at
the control wire too :-)
On Mon, Oct 5, 2020 at 2:08 PM john--- via AMSAT-BB <amsat-bb@?????.???>
wrote:
> You can go back through the amsat-bb archives and find many of the same
> problems that are being talked about now. Yaesu rotor problems are not
> new and are re-discussed from time to time.
>
> I have a G5500 on my Arizona station. It was installed in 2013 and it
> was a used rotor at the time. It worked ok for several years. I had it
> tracking Funcube 24x7 for many months and that was probably not a wise
> decision considering the potential problems. A few years ago I started
> to experience what is being talked about now. The azimuth readings
> started to be erratic. The LVB tracker would give up trying to move the
> rotor and since I was not there to manually move it, I would use the
> park command in SatPC32 to try to get past the intermittent areas. That
> would work for a while but soon I could not park the rotor from about
> 100 degrees back to zero.
>
> So the best option for me was to buy a replacement azimuth rotor (no
> control box or elevation rotor). This was a catalog item at many ham
> radio supply houses. So last December my son and I replaced the azimuth
> rotor with the new Yaesu unit. I thought I would be good for a few
> years but that would not be the case. I planned to repair the original
> az rotor by replacing the pot and have it available if the rotor should
> fail in the future.
>
> In August the rotor started showing signs of the same problem. I
> noticed that the actual azimuth was lagging behind what SatPC32 was
> sending to the LVB tracker. Eventually it would get past the bad spot
> and movement would be normal until it got to another bad area. So the
> new rotor only lasted 8 months and I wasn't tracking and downloading
> data on any satellite.
>
> So what is different about Arizona? For one thing the temperature gets
> to 120F and when the sun shines, as it does most every day, the dark
> cclor of the rotor absorbs the heat and the temp inside the rotor is
> likely sky high. Could that be a reason that the potentiometer is
> failing? Maybe and maybe not.
>
> Several years ago I ordered replacement pots from Yaesu. The shaft on
> these pots is metric so 1/4" American made pots will not fit. You are
> stuck with metric components. The part number on the replacement pots
> is RA25Y25S B501. You can look it up on the web. The specs for this
> pot are 15,000 cycles and 100 degrees C. I doubt if the temp inside the
> rotor exceeded 100C so it should have held up in the Arizona sun.
> 15,000 cycles is a lot and you can do the math.
>
> The next question is what is the part number of the pot in my new
> azimuth rotor? Did Yaesu change suppliers over the years and what are
> the specs of the pots they are using now? Once I disassemble the old
> rotor which is in Arizona, I will know if the part number is different
> than the replacement pots I purchased. I could send the new rotor back
> to Yaesu under warranty and have it repaired, but why do that if the
> same pot is used to repair the unit and will likely fail again?
>
> I thought I was alone with this problem but after asking around I found
> that that might not be the case. KB6LTY is experiencing the same
> problem with a new G5500DC that she purchased not long ago. There
> appears to be a systemic problem here. Changing the pot may work for a
> while but you can't be taking things apart every year just to have the
> same problem occur shortly thereafter. K3RRR reported similar problems
> and his story should be told here as well.
>
> Last year Yaesu changed the model number of the G5500 to the G5500DC.
> There was no announcement and ham radio dealers knew nothing about the
> change. EA4TX who makes replacement control boxes was also unaware of
> the change. The motors in the rotors are now DC rather than AC. The
> controller is different, but Yaesu did not publish the schematic in
> their instruction manual as they did with the G5400/5500 series. One
> satellite operator noticed that when SatPC32 sent a command to move the
> az and the el at the same time, the control box would go into a fault
> condition. Apparently the control box detected an overcurrent condition
> due to a high startup current and shut down. I'm not sure if that issue
> was resolved by Yaesu or by a software change. Just another thing to be
> aware of if you have a new DC model.
>
> Another thing to be aware of is that there are meter amplifiers in the
> the control box that are used to isolate and control the output voltage
> to interfaces like the LVB tracker. These meter amplifiers can become
> erratic rendering the interface unusable. The meters in the control box
> are separate so if they are reading properly and don't jump around,
> erratic readings going to the computer interface are likely caused by
> the meter amplifiers and have nothing to do with the pots in the rotors
> themselves.
>
> If you have experienced these kinds of problems and have or have not
> resolved them, please post so that we can determine how widespread these
> issues are and possible fixes.
>
> 73, John K8YSE
> _______________________________________________
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Sent via amsat-bb@?????.???.
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AMSAT-NA.
Not an AMSAT member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program!
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End of AMSAT-BB Digest, Vol 15, Issue 398
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