Dan, Below is a copy of an email I posted to the group on 12-5-06. DO NOT BUY HUSTLER! They refuse to pay me back for the shipping of their POS antenna. If you have the time and money, save yourself much aggravation and money, buy a commercial antenna... Check eham on comments on the G6-270R. Wish I had before I ordered it!!!!
good luck, Shanon KA8SPW Fellow repeater die hards, Long story short. I did not have the time, less than 5 working days, to order a commercial antenna and have it here. Due to only having one position on the tower, I needed a antenna that I could use for the 2M repeater and 440 control. It had to be one piece and rugged, so I ordered a Hustler G6-270R from R & L in Ohio. R & L are fantastic people!!! The antenna arrived in one day, just 3 working days before the required commercial install. If I did not have an antenna at the site for the install by 9am on Tuesday morning I would miss the window that I had been working on for 12 years to get onto this tower. Small town, political nightmare, thats a long nightmare story. The antenna was a POS to say the least. Bent center pin on the female N connector, silicone seal not completed where the fiberglass meets the aluminum, silicone seal not completed where the coax goes into the hole in the base plate into the back of the N connector leaving bare wires, the large aluminum base plate was cocked which left all the radial elements at a 5 degree tilt to one side. The base was obviously machined wrong. Not having the time to do much else, I pondered repairing the N connector and resealing the antenna to use it anyway. I called R&L and they offered to send me another one. Since I didn't have much time and I did have the connector in stock, I called Hustler to find out what the sealant number was so I could use the same. I tried to bend the pins back on the "no name connector" and guess what, two bent back the third went "plink"...... Hustler offered to pull one from stock, inspect it, and send it to me. The best they could do was get it to me THURSDAY, two days late unless I wanted to pay for overnight air..... So they arranged for R&L to send me another one. It arrived at 4:45 pm the night before it had to be at the site. I only had time to put the radials on and check the match before delivering it to the site after dinner. When I checked the match, it was now dark, with freezing rain which turned to sleet while I was on the ladder with my bird. Match OK. When I took the replacement out of the tube I noticed it had the same build date as the first, sinking feeling at this point. First check, the N connector, intact. Next, all the sealant, good. I assembled the elements onto the base and got ready to check the match outside on the pole in the middle of the back yard. This is when I tried to screw a Amphenol N to BNC adapter onto the antenna. I say tried because I could not get it to turn more than two turns. I checked the threads, BLOCKED by what appeared to be solder!!! I took the antenna into the shop and looked at in under a magnifier light. Turned out to be what appeared to be super glue in the threads!!! I used my Xacto knife to carefully remove it. I sent the bad antenna back to Hustler along with all the documentation and the glue remnants. Oh by the way, understandably I had to give them my charge card info and they charged me for the extra antenna (plus $25 shipping) and would credit me when I returned the bad one. They charged LIST price too!!! I had to pay over $50 to ship it from the Detroit area back to Hustler. They have refused to cover my shipping their BAD antenna back to them!!! I have bought many Hustler antennas for my needs and have specified over 50 Hustler antennas for other projects. After this I will never buy another Huster. I don't care how much I have to spend on a better made antenna!! I just hope the replacement antenna remains good long enough for me to buy a good commercial antenna and then arrange to pay for a crew to install it. They did credit my card for the replacement antenna. Still no credit for the shipping back of the bad antenna. Normally I would not complain about the cost of the shipping, but it was only necessary because of their TOTAL lack of quality. Oh by the way, I forgot to mention, the inspection sheet packed with the bad antenna was checked off as a totally different antenna. Some quality control. Shanon KA8SPW KA8SPW at SBCGLOBAL dot NET Dan wrote: > I am looking for opinions on what antenna is good for repeater use that > are in the $200-250 dollar range. I am looking at the Antennx and the > Hustler 270R. Opinoins? > Thanks Dan/NØFPE >
