www.arrl.org
QST
February 2023 51
Operating the ARCO Controller
The front panel touchscreen is very intuitive. Just
touch somewhere on the map, and 3 seconds later it
will turn. You can configure up to four different cus-
tomizable maps in the
APPEARANCE
setting tab.
Having different maps depending on your operation is
very useful. With the different altitude views, you can
see the full world map (at 12,000 miles altitude) for
chasing DX on 20 meters, but you may want to see
only the North American continent while operating on
6 meters (2,400 miles altitude), or a low altitude view
for 2 meters operation (300 miles altitude). The alti-
tude is completely customizable. You can toggle
between your customized maps by touching the
MAP
ZOOM
on the touchscreen (see Figure 14). It’s better
to set up the four presets in advance, as they will be
recalled instantaneously, because generating a new
map can take about 1 minute.
You can use the infinite rotary knob to select an exact
bearing manually by turning in either direction. After 3
seconds, the rotator will move in the desired direction
to the selected bearing. You can cancel the rotation
by pushing the rotary knob. Under the rotary knob,
there are traditional direction buttons — CCW and
CW — for each direction to manually turn the rotator.
Touching the azimuth number on the top right of the
screen will bring you to the
HEADING DIAL SCREEN
,
which allows you to enter the desired heading with
the large on-screen keypad (see Figure 15). It also
allows you to set the heading based on your location
to a specific DXCC country or prefix, or particular
WAZ or ITU zone, to turn your antenna in the proper
direction. Touching the
NEW
azimuth will toggle
between the short and long path bearing. It shows
that this controller was designed with the DXers in
mind, as it’s complete and easy to operate.
You can program six memory presets that can be
recalled just by touching them on the touchscreen.
Figure 13
— The ARCO
SYSTEM
settings menu tab.
Figure 14
— The main screen map recall for different
customizable altitude views.
Figure 15
— The
HEADING DIAL SCREEN
allows you to enter the
desired heading with the large on-screen keypad. It also allows
you to set the heading for the QRA locator by specific DXCC
country or prefix, or particular WAZ or ITU zone, to turn your
antenna in the proper direction.
You also personalize the memory name. For
example, I have one named “PARK,” which I use to
place my antenna so it will be best positioned for the
lesser wind load against my QTH-predominant wind
direction. But even if I forget to park my antenna man-
ually, I programmed the controller to automatically
park to the correct bearing after a certain time (pro-
grammable between 1 and 99 hours; see Figure 10).
In Conclusion
This may seem like a long review for an antenna
rotator controller, and I didn’t cover everything the
ARCO controller can do. This is a complex unit, but it
makes your operations very simple, and I just love it. I
have used this unit for the past 7 months without any
issues or bugs, so this one is a keeper for me.
Manufacturer:
microHAM, Maticna 28, Galanta,
92401, Slovak Republic,
www.microham.com
. Price:
$799.99 for the 200 W version (as reviewed), $899 for
the 400 W version. Available for purchase in the US
via DX Engineering,
www.dxengineering.com
.
