Some Additional 4o3a Rotator Genius (RG) Notes

The 4o3a Rotator Genius (RG) I’m setting up has a few idiosyncrasies worth mentioning:

• Initial setup required a male-to-male USB cable or manipulating the buttons on the bottom of the unit to enter the menu system and a static IP address.
• (This applies when contrasted to AG v 1.0, as AG v 2.0 uses a different connector) The Eurostyle Terminal Block for DC power is opposite polarity of the same plug when used in a 4o3a Antenna Genius.  You can also power the RG with up to 48VDC.  Output to the Rotator control cable is adjustable in coarse increments to lesser amounts.  (Remember to calculate and then check your voltage at the rotator end of the cable. – you’re going to want 7v or higher at the sensor end.)

Cables for the new K9ZW Home QTH

With all the underground’ conduits installed it was time to get the cables ordered.

After extensive online searching, I returned to working with DavisRF, working directly with their founder Steve K1PEK.  Steve K1PEK is a US Army veteran with an Elint/Sigint background in West Germany.

He also helped me by doing some performance vs cost comparisons of options.

The shack bulkhead to Skyneedle bulkhead is a 210 ft run, and the run from the shack to the Flagpole vertical is 250 ft.

Some 4o3a Antenna Genius (AG) Notes

• With AG v 2.0 the DC power connector changed, perhaps to make room for the OM Module connector (OM Modules are an accessory relay board).  I own both v 1.0 and v 2.0 AG units. Here are pictures:

Version 1.0 Eurostyle Connector

ARRL Frequency Measurement Test 2019 – an Amateur’s Challenge

While I don’t think I will be up and running with the new station for the November 7th 2019 FMT, you might want to check it out.

The ARRL Frequency Measurement Test is on the evening of November 7th, Thursday night

http://fmt.arrl.org/

0200Z-0520Z Nov 8, Submit Measurements by 0200Z, Nov 11

K5CM 40m (near 7064 kHz)
0200Z Call up for 3 minutes
0203Z Key down for 2 minutes
0205Z End of run

K5CM 80m (near 3598 kHz)
0215Z Call up for 3 minutes
0218Z Key down for 2 minutes
0220Z End of run

K5CM 40m (near 7064 kHz)
0500Z Call up for 3 minutes
0503Z Key down for 2 minutes
0505Z End of run

K5CM 80m (near 3598 kHz)
0515Z Call up for 3 minutes
0518Z Key down for 2 minutes
0520Z End of FMT

A couple reflectors shared some information on tools you can use:

…the FreqCal part of WSJTx. https://www.physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/wsjtx-doc/wsjtx-main-2.0.1.html

Spectrum Lab is also a good tool. It can record lots of data for subsequent analysis. Plus you can run multiple instances with multiple slices. It does require some setup so practice early.  [courtesy of ] Logan KE7AZ

Logan also recommended http://www.ve2azx.net/technical/FreqCal.pdf as a good reference on how to do teh test.  It is a PDF of a PowerPoint, so some stuff is spread out like slides do, but it is all there.

Good luck and have at ‘er!

73

Steve
K9ZW

Preparing the 4o3a Rotator Genius for the Skyneedle

The “K9ZW Home”QTH’s Skyneedle is getting a 4o3a Rotator Genius azimuth direction detection and rotator control system. The rotator is an AlfaSpid RAK rotor. (Links to my suppliers towards the end of this piece)

I’ll call the “Rotator Genius” an RG for short, is a relatively newer offering by Ranko’s 4o3a firm that also produces the Flex co-marketed Power Genius XL amplifier (PGXL), the Antena Genius intelligent antenna switch (AG), and the Station Genius shack automation device (SG) I’m also using in the shack.

Here is the controller part of the RG:

Rotator Genius Controllet

Conduit Progress

As I really want to do the digging in of conduit once, a lot has gone into the ground.

Before being separated