I agree with the purchase at the places where you get cheap products,
But when it comes to TV antennas, (for a back ground) When I was in my
20s and started work at a new job, I also installed TV antennas on the
side. Like most of the younger crowd with at least a little ambition, I
tried many side jobs, but settled on ham radio as a business as well as
firearms. It didn't take long to work out all the good TV antenna
installations and I got tired of long days and short nights with a good
job and the business out of the home. I had forgotten some of the ways
I tried to make extra spending money. Most were far too much work for
too little money and I definitely was not going back to farming!
At any rate, ALL the TV antennas back then, including Winegard were made
cheap. Now that was a long time ago, When we moved here in 84 I
installed a relatively small Winegard UHF/VHF antenna with a rotator
above the old TH3 at 90 feet.
*http://www.rogerhalstead.com/ham_files/tower8.htm* It worked well, but
the elements were still made from thin, rolled, thin Aluminum sheet.
They were very fragile.
Still, on the American made front there is equipment made to a price
with over rated equipment and I'm not picking on one company. Through
the years, many of us can recall antennas with outrageous claims. Still
today, many gain figures require a grain or two of salt.<:-)
When the 45G went up, I played with a few antennas including
http://www.rogerhalstead.com/ham_files/tower21.htm , but settled on
http://www.rogerhalstead.com/ham_files/tower34.htm The photo only shows
the TV antenna pointed ESE as we had to remove the one pointed NW while
taking the 7L 6-meter C3i down. The 144 and 440s were next. the
antennas made it to the ground safely, but that long, rusty mast got
away from him and made it all the way to the concrete, inside the tower
,where it still resides. Amazingly, despite all the noise it made on the
way down, it did no damage to the tower. Not even to the galvanizing!
The plan is to eventually cut it up and take the short pieces out the
side. .
I found that all the TV antennas were all fragile, regardless of the
reviews which appeared much like Ham equipment reviews, each had their
detractors. I tried from Radio Shacks imports to Winegard. I settled
for the biggest UHF antennas Radio Shack sold as I saw very little
difference in robustness across the lot and little price difference for
comparable antennas. The only thing The Winegard antennas had going for
the ones I tried, was the "Made in America", but we are now in a global
economy.
As for ham antennas, I like the C19XR, but would like the larger C31XR.
Like most mass produced antennas, it is fragile when on the ground or
sawhorses, but rugged in the air (neglecting large migrating birds). I
don't have a photo of what a lawnmower tire did to one end of the 20
meter reflector, or the broken boom truss on the 7L C3i from the
Cormorants, but "somewhere among over 30,000 plus photos I have a series
of the Cormorants on the antenna and truss, just like some where I have
a series of photos from the 70s of our full size cars completely covered
with snow in the driveway. <:-) OTOH, this is what it did to the TH5
before I could get a climber to get it down.
http://www.rogerhalstead.com/ham_files/tower36.htm
73
Roger (K8RI)
On 1/30/2016 Saturday 12:38 PM, Patrick Greenlee wrote:
See the quality of Chinese goods at Harbor Freight and Northern tool
to name two places. The Chinese are not backward third worlders
devoid of technology, including an understanding of QA and QC.
Stateside resellers of Chinese "junk" like the aforementioned get
exactly what they order. The "junk" is built to cost. The retailers
like those mentioned above are getting exactly what they are
contracting for. It IS a case of you get what you pay for. Fastenall
has some pretty good Chinese hardware, again, built to a contract
price and quality level.
Recall, the Chinese have put folks in space and brought them back
alive. They have a sophisticated airforce and missile forces. They
can put comm sats in orbit AND shoot them down.
They can build technologically complex designs to demanding
tolerances B U T not at Harbor Freight prices. Harbor Freight price
level goods are not representative of Chinese capability. Do not let
cheap Chinese imported junk lull you into a false sense of security
with respect to Chinese capabilities in the market place or in the
battlespace.
I am reminded of the defection incident where the Russian pilot flew
a, then, late model MIG to Japan to defect. At first there were
guffaws of laughter because the Russian avionics was tube based
instead of solid state A N D T H E N it dawned on the team going
over the MIG that it wasn't so backward in capability but was intended
to survive in a nuclear battle space and not be toast from EMP. Built
to a requirement.
The shoddy goods we often get from China are precisely what the
contract calls for. Want better? Demand it. Pay for it. I have
recently cut the cord and trashed Sat TV in favor of Netflix and off
the air TV with a multi-tuner HD DVR for time shifted commercial free
viewing. Big monetary savings and I don't have to listen to Hindi if
I need support. I researched to find the best antenna for my deep
fringe purposes. There are some Chinese antennas that do very good
except in the robustness and quality of fit, finish and strength of
the aluminum alloy. I ordered American made Winegard. I have queried
installers and expect good quality to be evident when I open the
carton. Home Depot delivered for $110 VS Amazon at about $130.
Original post:
Rohn Bolts AND nuts - won't mateIs this just an other example of the
Chinese lack of quality assurance? I have seen mane examples of that
in the past.It appears to me that the "pimples" are made too deep.I
find Rohn's answer despicable. They should just send you a new set of
nuts, nuts that they checked against their own specifications.Hans –
N2JFS ## Even Portland Bolt buys Chinese imported nuts + bolts. Some
of it is good, and some is junk. On a similar note, locally we are
havingone of our 100 year old bridges replaced. Turning into a real
gong show. Main contractor just finished building a new bridge in VE3
land, which ended up getting shut down for several days, bad expansion
joints...in the middle of winter. No alternate path either, so the
trans canadagets cut off...... totally un acceptable. Same contactor
is building our new bridge downtown. His sub contractor decides to buy
steel, and nuts and boltsfrom china. This has turned into a real
disaster, with huge cost overuns, and junk material. The latest is...
you cant even weld to it !! WTF. Dunno what alloythey are using, buts
its not even close to what was originally speced. Huge sections of it
have had to be torn down and new replacement steel is no where in
site.New bridge is not expected to be functioning till late 2019, way
behind schedule. ## Meanwhile, the head of the Canadian steel
manufacturing, that represents all the various steel manufacturers in
VE3 land comes on TV...and sez.... told ya so. cdn steel makers could
have easily supplied the correct steel, on time,and on budget.But
local city hall folks wanted to save 50 cents, and went to the lowest
bidder. So far, we have saved nothing, and will be in the hole when
all is said and done.Then to top it all off, the main contractor
appears to have no clue as to how to build a new bridge in the 1st
place. ## I had the 12 x 60 inch long x 1.125 inch diam anchor bolts
for my HDX-689 custom made by portland bolt, they were manufactured in
their portland plant,to my specs, with a 6 inch thread on each end of
each rod...and are 103 ksi yield strength. The various heavy duty
nuts, washers, bolts etc, are also made in theirplant. Including the
18 x 1 inch x 3 inch long bolts for the legs, with correct length
shank. ## when u see dimples done wrong, excess galvanizing, threads
done wrong, dont fight with it, replace the entire mess. And avoid
chinese made brake rotors like theplague, they come warped right out
of the box, or will warp shortly afterwards. Their calipers are junk
as well. Im lucky I avoided that gong show, and bought
reputableaftermarket brands. Those pal nuts that came with my rohn
TB-4 bearings were nothing to right home about, and neither were the
bolts that came with them. The 3 x boltsthat are mounted transverse,
and every 120 degs were more junk. Mine rusted and seized up asap,
sri, not impressed.
Jim VE7RF
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73
Roger (K8RI)
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