On August 26 I received my new XM-240 which was probably one of the first
out of Cushcraft. My thanks to George at HRO for expediting this delivery
from Cushcraft so that it could coincide with the delivery of my US towers
HDX-589mdpl....(I'll post my experiences/ installation story of the tower
in another TT submission). Because CC had to rush the shipment prior to
having gone to full production, I had NO ASSEMBLY manual to work from. I
was sent a factory/ design drawing which proved to be more than adequate.
Assembly was very simple and straight forward and I had no trouble
finishing the construction in 3-4 hours by myself. I was not happy with
the alignment of one element relative to the other since it did not appear
to be exactly normal to the mast mount plate. I moved the element to boom
bracket forward about one inch, re-drilled the through boom bolt/pin hole
and re-assembled...looks ok now. Also..one should check the balun box
connections....I decided to look inside the balun box (usual Ham curiosity)
and am glad I did since the electrical connecting hardware was loose.
Cushcraft should ditch their U-bolts and aluminum "v"-blocks...I've seen a
lot in TT about galling and seizing stainless steel hardware but CC U-bolts
are hopeless...my last CC product had the same seizing problem with the
U-bolts. Both boom to mast U-bolts on this product seized on me. Also the
"v" blocks that go on the U-bolts NEVER seem to fit!!! I went out and
bought new bolts/clamps...if you use the CC U-bolts..put lots of lube on
them and I hope you can get the 'V" blocks to fit.
This antenna is mechanically GREAT...(I'm not sure my neighbors think so).
I have a feeling it's going to stand up well.
Performance wise I am thrilled! I've played the beam for three nites now,
and even though condx have been good I've received numerous S9 +20 reports
out of EU and run EU pileups..up to 10 deep...and couldn't run 'em dry.
I've been spotted a few times on the Internet cluster out of eu with "big
sig" comments. The beam is at 32 meters and I do have a great hilltop QTH.
There is NO WAY this beam has 28db FB....I'd say maybe 10-15, but it must
have decent forward gain.
I think the XM-240 is a good piece of aluminum!
Cheers es 73 de Steve VE6WZ kinderh@cadvision.com
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