[TowerTalk] R7000--vendor support

[Jim Jarvis]

An antenna issue--hardly at the bleeding edge of performance--
but highly relevant to vendor support.

I've had an R7, an R7000, and an R8 vertical...still owning the
latter two, as utility antennas, for a number of years.
On top of towers, on top of hillsides, on top of poles at friends
homes and temporary exposition sites.

Through it all, CushCraft has been great.  I took what I guess to be
a lightning hit, up in VT.  All the traps were fried.  Black stuff
everywhere.  Bought new traps, put it in a ski bag for use later...
and here we are in surburbia, four years later.  Won't tune.  Grrr.

In the  diagnostic process,  CC was good enough to provide replacement trap
covers,
and a replacement cap for the MN7000, as I was doing surgical investigation.
Eventually, we found the problem; seems to have been a braided connection,
on the exterior.

Would I buy from them again?  Appropriate to the application and product,
you betcha.  Customer service is absolutely first rate.

This vertical has accounted for 275 countries so far...bleeding edge
it may not be, but like many things, it works pretty well, it's light,
and it fits in my car quite nicely.

It speaks highly of a manufacturer, when they extend themselves to support
product which is out of manufacture for such a period.

Not an investor in CC, just a very satisfied client.

n2ea
jimjarvis at ieee.org