[Yaesu] G-1000DXA Rotator

Sat Mar 5 11:39:51 EST 2005

My G-1000DXA has started giving me fits. Anybody know a way to verify (from
the shack) whether the control box or the rotator sending unit is the
culprit? The antenna rotates just fine, but the control indicator either
doesn't move, or sometimes on power-up takes off in some wild direction on
its own (while the antenna is actually not moving). On other occasions when
I power it up it seems to work just fine for a while, then the indicator
needle goes dead again. Driving me nuts, but obviously I don't want to send
just the control box to Yaesu if there's a possibility that the problem is
in a sending unit up on the tower instead. It's an 80 foot tower, so
removing and replacing the rotator itself is not a trivial task for an old
fart like me. Therefore, I'd like to find a way to be certain which end is
busted.
Is there a way to test the return signal from the tower at the control box?
I know the control box output signal to the tower is good, because the
antenna rotates fine and is completely controllable with the CW/CCW switch.
The OVERLAP warning also works fine.
I'm aware that on some of the early G-1000SDX units the control box pot
tends to die, but am not sure if the same pot is used in this G-1000DXA.
Tks,
Jerry W5KP