8 core cable

[VK4KL]

Anyone know where I can get about 75 feet of 8 conductor cable for my rotator from?
Have looked at the likely stores but I can only find the cable from USA and I would prefer to buy in Oz if I can.

Adrian

[VK5KAA]

Anyone know where I can get about 75 feet of 8 conductor cable for my rotator from?
Have looked at the likely stores but I can only find the cable from USA and I would prefer to buy in Oz if I can.

Adrian

look on eBay but no go buying in Oz.
Gordon.

[VK4GHZ]

Anyone know where I can get about 75 feet of 8 conductor cable for my rotator from?

Adrian, do you really need 8-core?

All three of my Yaesu rotators (KR400RC, KR1000S, G-800DXA) only require 7 conductors, despite having a 8 pin connector.

If 7 is ok, then your local Super Cheap Auto has trailer cable.
http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/search ... ler%20Wire
This is what I use, via a 25m run, to turn my 2x2m stack, 70cm, and 23cm yagis.

Jaycar also have 7 core trailer cable: http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=WH3090

What is the model of your rotator?

[VK3DXE]

Anyone know where I can get about 75 feet of 8 conductor cable for my rotator from?

Adrian, do you really need 8-core?

All three of my Yaesu rotators (KR400RC, KR1000S, G-800DXA) only require 7 conductors, despite having a 8 pin connector.

If 7 is ok, then your local Super Cheap Auto has trailer cable.
http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/search ... ler%20Wire
This is what I use, via a 25m run, to turn my 2x2m stack, 70cm, and 23cm yagis.

Jaycar also have 7 core trailer cable: http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=WH3090

What is the model of your rotator?

Unless my G-800DXA is different, they should only require 6-core. Admittedly my run is only about 40 feet, but 6-core alarm/security cable does the job nicely.

[VK5EI]

I’m in the process of installing a Yaesu G5500. My plan is to use 7 core trailer and cat 5 8 core stranded Network cable. The 7 core will supply voltage for the motors and power some relays for coax switching. The cat 5 will carry controller sensor voltage and other small voltage demands at a later stage. A interface box will be located in the shack and another at the tower. This way I have spare cables ready for future projects

[VK4KL]

I had seen the ads on eBay for the cable but would prefer to buy locally if I can.

According to the manual I need 8 conductors from control box to rotator.
The model is CDE TailTwister.

Maybe I could use trailer cable with figure 8 power cable to supply power to the rotator?

Adrian

[VK3QI]

Adrian,

There is a neat little trick that you can do to solve the problem of the CDE tailtwister requiring 8 core cable.

The same applies to the Ham-M series of rotators.

Pins 4 and 8 of the rotator cable are devoted to making a connection between the motor winding and the non-polarised capacitor of 130 to 150 mfd 50volts AC capacitor housed in the control box.

The trick is to mount the capacitor up at the rotator base using suitable waterproofing of the capacitor. If you don't want to use the capacitor from the control box then you can make up a suitable non polarised capacitor by connecting two 250mfd capacitors in series (+ to + and - to -).

This then allows you to use 7 core trailer cable and even have one spare wire for other things like preamp switching!

I have been using this system for the last 40 years - works a treat!

Cheers

Peter VK3QI

[VK5KX]

Adrian,
You could try 'irrigation control' multi-conductor cable, it is commonly 0.55mm2, but is also available in 1.0mm2 & 1.5mm2 as well.

It may work out cheaper to use 2 runs of the smaller size cable and parrallel them.


Peter (VK5KX)

[VK2XSO]

I know a place where they throw it out !
If you know or see any riggers working on mobile phone towers, they use 8 core shielded cable to control the antenna down tilts.
They usually supply them with 100 metre rolls of the cable for each antenna and may only use 50 metres off a roll and then throw the rest in the scrap metal bin for recycling.
So if you see them working on a tower, ask them if they have any offcuts and if they might like a 6 pack of beer or chocolate. (riggers love chocolate).

They're always happy to give cable away to ham radio operators, they just don't like people who want to melt down cable for copper.
If you know where their scrap metal bins are, you can also ask them if you can scrounge some pieces from there.
You'll often find all kinds of nice lengths of heliax etc.

[VK4GHZ]

(riggers love chocolate).

Now we're getting somewhere!
Nestle, good ol Cadbury's, or this new Wonka stuff (which is Nestle)?

[VK4KL]

I'll see if I can find a Telstra guy working on towers. We have a tower 100 meters away.

Adrian

[VK2XSO]

They don't care what kind of chocolate. The cadbury stuff usually works on them.

[VK4UH]

I also had this issue of trying to find 8 core rotator cable at a reasonable price.

I did consider "exteriorising" the capacitor from the control box to the rotator itself but this would have required modification to the hardware.

The simplest and cheapest solution I came to was to use 7 core trailer cable and a second run of two-core red and black cable from the local autoelectrician. I cable tied the two cable runs together at 1m intervals.

This turned out at a fraction of the cost of 9 or 10 core "control" cable from any source I could find in VK.

Kevin VK4UH
Brisbane