"Nevermind" wrote in message
...
Im a new ham setting up a tower in my backyard. Eventually, when I
can afford it, I will buy a rotor and a directional antenna. I
wanted to run the rotor cable while I have the PVC above ground, and
im not sure what kind of cable I would need. Would any 8 conducter
cable work? cat cable? telephone cable size okay? I dont want to get
something too cheap, but im running 300 ft.



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You need rotor cable. The Belden 9405 has 8 wires: 2 x #16 and 6 x #18.
Sells for 94 cents a foot at AES. Probably cheaper elsewhere. You would
probably be best off with a Yaesu rotator for these reasons:

1) About 1/3 cheaper up front.

2) Uses a DC motor. These won't stall at low voltage, just run slower.

3) Require 6 wires, instead of 8. Only 5 of the 6 are actually used. What I
did was to use 8 conductor cable, and connect 2 wires in parallel for the 2
motor wires.

What you should do for any rotor installation is to first connect the
control box to the rotator on the kitchen table, or wherever, using the
actual whole piece of cable you plan to use.

Tam/WB2TT