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[TowerTalk] Re: [Force 12 Talk] Rivets

To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: [TowerTalk] Re: [Force 12 Talk] Rivets
From: andrew@gi0nwg.freeserve.co.uk (Andrew Williamson)
Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2001 20:18:30 +0000
In message <14155279056.20010301085351@one.net>, Bob Otto
<N8NGA@one.net> writes

You want facts.....

>There's no way for other
>readers to know if the person really assembled the product correctly,

As per the manual.

>substituted parts, 

Only substituted the tiny rivets that hold the elements together for
larger ones.  No problems here.

>used the product in a way that it wasn't designed
>for, etc.  

Installed as per the manual.

>How were the rivets installed. 

The failed rivets in question were installed by the factory.

>What tools were used. 

Ask Tom, the factory installed them.

>Were the rivets formed properly. 

Again, ask Tom.

>Did the person open holes to make it easier. Etc., etc., etc.   

Ask the factory, they installed them.

>Some people don't want to "fix the problem", 

Trust me, I do.  I'm tired running up and down the tower with this thing
to fix things that were factory installed.

>they just want the company to make them "right",

And so they should.  They used the wrong rivets (as admitted by them).
They created the problem, they should fix it.

>regardless of what the real "root cause" of the problem was.  

We know what the root cause of the problem was.  The factory installed
the wrong rivets.

>Instead, the charge became "lets make Force12 behave *responsibly*".

They received approx $1000 for a product which failed due to their
mistake.  Of course they should me made to behave responsibly.  If you
bought a car from Ford and it failed due to their mistake, you'd expect
them to fix it, wouldn't you?

>It seems to me *WE* have a responsibility to report FACTS and attack a
>problem here.....to look for a design or process improvements, not to
>use our list to whine and bash companies or products.

That is exactly what has been tried, but Tom ignores any correspondence.
Have you any better suggestions?

At the same location there are eight other totally homebrew yagis which
have had ZERO failures of any kind (and most have been installed
longer).  One of these, a 4el 20M yagi on a 40ft boom is only about 6ft
below the 40M failure so it gets similar winds.  Why should the F12 have
so many failures when all the homebrew ones have none?


Andrew Williamson GI0NWG / AC6WI
Homepage = http://www.gi0nwg.freeserve.co.uk/

One of the ZL9CI gang
http://www.qsl.net/zl9ci/

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