Antenna rotator

An antenna rotator unit is visible in the middle of the mast.

Antennas
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Common types Dipole Fractal Loop Satellite dish Television Whip
Components Balun Block upconverter Coaxial cable Counterpoise (ground system) Feed Feed line Low-noise block downconverter Passive radiator Receiver Rotator Stub Transmitter Tuner Twin-lead
Systems Antenna farm Amateur radio Cellular network Hotspot Municipal wireless network Radio Radio masts and towers Wi-Fi Wireless
Safety and regulation Mobile phone radiation and health Wireless electronic devices and health International Telecommunication Union (Radio Regulations) World Radiocommunication Conference
Radiation sources / regions Boresight Focal cloud Ground plane Main lobe Near and far field Side lobe Vertical plane
Characteristics Array gain Directivity Efficiency Electrical length Equivalent radius Factor Friis transmission equation Gain Height Radiation pattern Radiation resistance Radio propagation Radio spectrum Signal-to-noise ratio Spurious emission
Techniques Beam steering Beam tilt Beamforming Bell Laboratories Layered Space-Time (BLAST) Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) Reconfiguration Spread spectrum Wideband Space Division Multiple Access (WSDMA)

An antenna rotator is a device which is used to change the orientation of a directional antenna. Most antenna 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 amateur radio and military communications installations. They are also used with TV and FM antennas, where stations are available from multiple directions, as the cost of a rotator is 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 power to turn a TV/FM or small Ham antenna. These units typically cost around US$70.

Heavy-duty Ham rotators are designed to turn extremely large, heavy, high frequency (shortwave) beam antennas, but cost hundreds and possibly thousands of dollars.

As seen in the center of the reference picture, we can see an AzEl installation (abbreviation for Azimuth/Elevation). It is a rotator type that can control the azimuth and also the elevation direction of an antenna system or array. This type of antenna configuration is use in Amateur radio satellite or EME communication for example.

SatNOGS version 2 ground station deployed during FOSDEM 2015

A popular AzEl rotator system for a typical small antenna array as shown in the reference picture would be the Yaesu G-5500.

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

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