Rotors (antenna rotators, motorized antenna aimers)

[kq6qv]

When a highly directional antenna is employed, a rotor becomes necessary when the desired stations are in multiple directions.

A rotor is a minor nuisance for analog stations, but it becomes a major problem for digital stations. This is because it takes 10 times longer to discover the correct aim for a DTV station. (Instead of simply looking at the level of snow, you must count the dropouts that occur over a half-minute period, then re-aim and try again.) The author discovered that for weak stations it took him 5 to 10 minutes to achieve the optimum aim, and during that time he missed about half the program dialog. Because of this he now refuses to use that antenna.

For an ideal rotor, the antenna would always point where the indoor controller indicated. But the Radio Shack rotor the author was using suffered