No, my tower section fit perfectly with the hinge pieces that they sent me.
I bought the antenna in "flea market" condition knowing that I was probably
the third or fourth owner. The 10 & 15 meter stubs were missing (and still
are, I have no need for them) and there was no base or hinge. One of the
previous owners had kludged together a mount to mount the legs directly to
the insulators. This probably could be made to work OK, but no hinge.
When I called MFJ I also talked to Tom (I guess he is their lead guy for
Hy-Tower issues) although it took several calls to get through to him as
he seemed to be always "out". But like I said, my antenna dated from well
before the MFJ buyout so the tower sections were OLD Rohn material. And as
I said before, it all fit together like it was supposed to. From looking at
your pictures there is definitely a problem with fitting your tower sections
to the base. No way will that go together.
At 11:52 PM 7/5/2008, you wrote:
>Hi Jim...
>
>I bought this antenna new in Dec of 2006 and it took a year and a half to
>get it installed due to hasseling with MFJ and the weather.
>
>Here's the deal in a nut shell.....
>
>The entire antenna went together ok with a few exceptions....
>The top triangle plate was oversized for these tower sections.....MFJ said
>to just smash the tabs down and bolt it on.
>I don't do things that way so I added spacers and new longer bolts without
>any problem....no big deal really.....
>
>Here's the REAL problem.....
>See the pictures of the antenna during a dry run before the
>installation....especially pix 2730.
>
>I called MFJ and the contact guy is named Tom and he said they have not EVER
>received a call complaining about assy of this antenna.
>Well.....to cut to the chase.....these pix convinced him that I DID indeed
>have a problem and he had new leg and base brackets bent for me.
>I installed the antenna with the properly bent brackets and 90 70 foot
>radials and it works great.....I work all over Europe on 75mtrs with 100
>watts.
>
>Recently, there were some very high straight line winds and the base section
>legs buckled slightly and bent the base tabs....if you can believe that.
>Ever try to bend steel that thick??
>Tom told me they use a 12 ton press to form those brackets.
>
>The insurance bought new tower sections and brackets but here we go
>again....the brackets were the original spec and don't fit.
>I called Tom and it's the same story....he remembers what happened
>previously and still says I am the only guy calling with problems.
>He said the other day that he "would check into it". Personally, he is nice
>enough and I am not flipping out about it but I'm getting a bit aggrivated
>with this ongoing hassel.
>He refuses to assemble a base to see for himself....really though, he dosent
>need to do that....just look at the pictures.
>
>Two years ago Tom told me to just squeeze the tower legs together.....I
>tried that but I was afraid that I would damage the legs with the amount of
>bending I would have to do.
>
>The original leg brackets were bent at the wrong angle....by a mile. Pix
>2730 forced him to believe that I couldn't bend the tower legs....MFJ made
>new brackets at the proper angle.
>
>The original base brackets measure 1 7/8" from the inside of the bend to the
>edge. The brackets with the proper bend for my tower sections is 1 11/16.
>I am again having problems getting new parts bent that fit in order to
>replace the bent parts previously installed that were bent to fit.
>
>It turns out that the vendor making the tower sections has been sold time
>and time again since the 50's and the tower mfg specs have changed slightly
>each time.
>(just last month ROHN has been sold AGAIN)
>When MFJ bought out the HY-GAIN antenna line earlier in this decade there
>were some stock of sections so MFJ redesigned the base with the triangular
>plate and assy hardware.
>It all fit ok.
>Then......sometime later, the tower mfgr was sold and the tower specs
>changed and guess what......MFJ refuses to believe there is a problem just
>because no one calls them to complain but me....according to them.
>
>Jim....I hope all this makes sense to you.....I'm getting frustrated.
>
>Please tell me of your experiences.
>
>
>Dave
>K6XYZ
>Sperry, Ok
>
>
>
>
>
>
Jim Rhodes K0XU
jim@rhodesend.net
Experience is the thing you have left when everything else is gone.
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