[TowerTalk] Hy-Gain 3 el 40M

[Stan or Patricia Griffiths]

Mel Martin wrote:

> Having read Stan's report, I think I'd better tell you of my experience
> with this antenna.
> I will start by saying it was the most troublesome antenna I have ever
> owned...
> There was in fact, a serious design problem, acknowleged by Hy-gain,
> with the linear loading elements. They had a propensity to crack at the
> bend just before they are fastened to the solid element. In later
> production they rounded this corner to reduce failure. This antenna
> worked fine for the first 2 years, and after that... every time I fixed
> one problem, another one appeared. I probably spent 4 times the cost of
> the antenna having it put on and taken off the tower ( 150' guyed ).
> When it worked, it worked great, but it hardly ever worked. There are
> simply too many mechanical joints and too much movement for it to be
> reliable. Mercifully mine was finally destroyed in an ice storm in
> '98... it wasn't working at the time, it had developed another
> intermittant. Caveat emtor. BTW, I'm a fan of Hy-Gain antennas generally
> and have used the TH7, 205, 204, 155, 105, 153, 103 with great success,
> generally losing them in ice-storms.
> --
>
> Mel Martin
> mel@interlink.net
> VE2DC
>
>

Hi Mel,

I certainly can't dispute anything you say about your sad experiences with
the 3 el Hygain 40.  I can say that after living in New Hampshire for three
years that your winters are FAR WORSE than ours out here and I never had
that beam up in New Hampshire.  I did have the earlier two element version
of it up in NH, however, and without problems (after substantial mechanical
modification by myself and N7KA).

Many people are not aware that the Pacific Northwest generally has what I
would regard as mild winters.  Here in the Portland area, we may go several
years with virtually no snow and the temperatures dipping below freezing
only a couple of times and then only a degree or two below.  Once every ten
years or so we may get an ice storm and even then, it may only be in the
Columbia Gorge area (which is several miles from where I live).  As far as I
know, I have never had a lightning strike in the 47 years I have been on the
air.  So, you see, I have had it pretty easy and so has my 3 element Hygain
40 meter beam . . .  Thanks for another perspective, Mel.

Stan  w7ni@teleport.com





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