I have to ask if you have seen the Gulf Alpha antennas? They are VERY mechanically sound! STURDY! Someone complained about shipping time form Gulf Alpha... Mine arrived just as promised and has held up well in out mild South Dakota weather.
73, Joe kk0sd
-----Original Message----- From: amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Jim Sanford Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2014 8:21 PM To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Antenna suggestions
More like my experience with M-Squared. Their antennas are the best mechanically engineered antennas I've ever seen.
Jim wb4gcs@amsat.org
On 9/11/2014 8:25 AM, Stefan Wagener wrote:
Well,
I am sorry to hear about your experience with M2. On the other hand, we have dealt with them over the last two years for satellite antennas and
can
report the hardware is good, it fits and instructions when followed allow even non-hams to built a quality system. Customer support was outstanding and quick. I am planning on purchasing the next set of satellite antennas from them in the next few weeks and will continue to share my positive experience about them.
Stefan, VE4NSA
On Wed, Sep 10, 2014 at 10:52 PM, Lizeth Norman normanlizeth@gmail.com wrote:
If you're buying anything from M2 expect poor customer service and a bad build. I have more to do tonight than list the screwups those people have done. They actually charged my credit card and THEN 2.5 months later (after finishing another manufacturing cycle) shipped the product (upgrade kit for a KLM kt-34a)!!! Not to mention having to use a dremel on the "CNC" hardware. The UHF antennas use a cheap white plastic insulator that cracks, allowing water ingress. Remember the $200 circularity switch that you need to buy? Junk after 7 years. See here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/n3ykf/11312549334/ Considering what these people charge, I'd expect teflon.
Because I'm a glutton for punishment, I purchased another antenna from this bunch of rejects (These bozos actually had the balls to cancel two credit card orders for parts!). It was cheaper than ordering one from Europe. I guess at $800, lasting 7 years, it's just over $100 a year to use this, then throw it away.
The antenna has 21 pair of elements. 14 pair (!!!!!!) were miscut. 13 by 1/16 and one by an 1/8. (I took pictures because I care!!!) That's a real problem where the elements of the antenna are 1/16 th of an inch different (most). Took me almost two hours to verify what they'd done and decide that regardless of what screwups they'd made, it was going together. Seems to work. I've no way to test it other than swr and on air usage.
Take care to read the Gulf Alpha page. Last I looked, the satellite antennas were out of production and he was reserving parts/service for original owners, only.
On Wed, Sep 10, 2014 at 4:23 PM, Dave Webb KB1PVH kb1pvh@gmail.com wrote:
Keith,
I'm not sure if Gulf Alpha is still making the satellite antennas. He
had
something on his website saying that he wasn't going to build them and
even
if he was to build them, you will wait a minimum of 4 months regardless
of
what timeframe he tells you.
Dave-KB1PVH
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