Antenna rotator

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v t e

An antenna rotator (or antenna rotor) is a device used to change the

rotators have two parts, the rotator unit and the controller. The controller is normally placed near the equipment which the antenna is connected to, while the rotator is mounted on the antenna mast directly below the antenna.

Rotators are commonly used in

antennas, where stations are available from multiple directions, as the cost of a rotator is often significantly less than that of installing a second antenna to receive stations from multiple directions.

Rotators are manufactured for different sizes of antennas and installations. For example, a consumer TV antenna rotator has enough

].

Heavy-duty ham rotators are designed to turn extremely large, heavy,

shortwave

) beam antennas, and cost hundreds or possibly thousands of dollars.

In the center of the reference picture, the accompanying image includes an

moon-bounce

communications.

An open hardware AzEl rotator system is provided by the SatNOGS Groundstation project.

The Alliance Manufacturing Co. of Alliance, Ohio, and the Astatic Corporation of Conneaut, Ohio, manufactured popular radio and TV booster and rotary antenna systems. These products were heavily advertised for radio use in newspapers starting in the early 1940s,^[1] and for use with commercial television sets from 1949 into the 1960s. Cinécraft Productions, a pioneer in early TV advertising, produced six commercials for the Astatic Booster TV in 1949 and 112 for the Alliance Tenna-Rotor, Tenna-Scope, and Casca-Matic Booster between 1949 and 1955.^[2]

Manufacturers of consumer TV antenna rotators

Past

Before the era of

signals. The rotator market was served by a number of manufacturers including

• Alinco Electronics, Inc.
• Alliance Manufacturing Co., Inc., Alliance, Ohio
• American Phenolic Corporation
• Astatic Corporation. Conneaut, Ohio
• Channel Master
• Cornell-Dubilier Corporation, South Plainfield, New Jersey
• Gemini Industries, Inc., Passaic, New Jersey
• Hy-Gain
• Kenpro
• Sylmar, California
• Leader Electronics, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio
• Nippon Antenna
• Philco
• Philips
• Pro Brand International, Inc. (Eagle Aspen brand)
• Radio Merchandise Sales, Inc.
• Radio Shack
• RCA
• Sears, Roebuck and Co.
• Stolle
• The Radiart Corp., Cleveland, Ohio
• Zenith

Current

Although the cord-cutting movement has increased interest in receiving free over-the-air television signals, as of December 2021 consumer options are limited.

• VOXX Accessories Corporation of Carmel, Indiana, a wholly-owned subsidiary of VOXX International, using the RCA trademark, offers a remote-controlled antenna rotator, the model VH226E.
• Channel Master's stock of model CM-9521HD is depleted, and it is unclear whether more units will be manufactured.
• Yaesu Musen sells a range of rotators aimed at the Amateur and FM (VHF) broadcast listener markets. Amateur products include an Azimuth-Elevation product.

References

External links

• Alliance Tenna-Rotor Series 1-17 television commercials produced by
  Cinécraft Productions, Inc.

• Yaesu Rotators