Is a brake delay really necessary on a Ham-series or Tailtwister rotor?
Yes, it really is good insurance. The brake delay prevents the rotor from being stopped too suddenly. The bigger your antenna is, the more inertia there is. The “drive train” (consisting of rotor, mast, antenna, bearings, and whatever else is up there turning) at the top of your tower can be a lot of mass. So when the antenna reaches the heading you’re turning it to, the inertia makes it want to keep turning. Every time the brake engages before the “drive train” has settled down and stopped turning and “whip lashing,” there is an enormous strain placed on the brake and the brake housing. When this happens a few times, the brake assembly just plain eats itself. At $35.00, a brake delay unit like the BD-189 is probably less than half the cost of the repair. And the repair isn’t a matter of “if;” it’s a matter of “when.
Yes, it really is good insurance. The brake delay prevents the rotor from being stopped too suddenly. The bigger your antenna is, the more inertia there is. The “drive train” (consisting of rotor, mast, antenna, bearings, and whatever else is up there turning) at the top of your tower can be a lot of mass. So when the antenna reaches the heading you’re turning it to, the inertia makes it want to keep turning. Every time the brake engages before the “drive train” has settled down and stopped turning and “whip lashing,” there is an enormous strain placed on the brake and the brake housing. When this happens a few times, the brake assembly just plain eats itself. At $35.00, a brake delay unit like the BD-189 is probably less than half the cost of the repair.
