Good afternoon Howard,

I had Hygain custom make my tower.  The base tower that I had mine built on,
was their HD70.  I had them add 5 feet to the total height, but of course,
each of the 4 sections had to be made longer as well.  This was long before
MFJ bought out Hygain.  Piece of equipment.  I will be buying a amp from him
this year.  

As for reliability of my DB36, it is the second SteppIr that I have had.  I
bought their original 4 element yagi back in 2004.  It didn't have 40 and
30, because the trombone elements had not come out by that time.  I was
supposed to be getting a DB42,  when I needed it.  I had hired a fellow from
Denver to put the antenna up, and his schedule only permitted one specific
week.  Since the factory couldn't deliver a DB42 when I needed it, I opted
for the DB36.  It is by far the best antenna that I have ever had, it is
just terrific.  I had the factory make mine differently than the stock DB32.
I didn't want to use their 50 ohm to 25 ohm balun, because it was limited to
3KW.  I had the factory make mine without a balun or connector.  I had Jay
custom-build a 50 ohm to 25 ohm balun that could handle 10KW DC.  I had Jay
make the balun with a female 7/16 DIN connector.  If you aren't familiar
with the 7/16 connector, they are about 4 times the size of an N connector.
They can handle 20KW, and can handle up to several gigahertz.  They are
very, very low loss, and have excellent weatherproofing characteristics.

Take care, and perhaps I will run into you on the air.

73
but the factory couldn't deliver one 
I wouldn't think of buying a tower from MFJ, or any of its companies.  Jay
Terleski the owner of Array Solutions is a good friend of mine.  I buy stuff
from him quite often.  My power meter is his Power Master 2, which is a
terrific 



Alan R. Downing
Phoenix, AZ


-----Original Message-----
From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Howard, W A 9 Y B W
Sent: Wednesday, July 17, 2013 12:54 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: My tower

Alan,

Who made your tower?  I have a 72 foot crank-up, tilt-over tower made by US 
Tower which I have had for just over 30 years.  I did not purchase the motor

drive to raise and lower the tower as I could not afford it at the time and 
also I was a lot younger then.  Now I wish I had.

My tower can tilt over, however, that is difficult with trees getting bigger

over the years.  In fact, my 2 element 40 meter beam is way to big to tilt 
over, however, I can reach it from the garage roof and I added the final 16 
feet on the end of the elements from the garage roof.

I cannot add the motor winch after the fact unless I return the tower to the

factory, and that is not going to happen.
How do you like the DB-36?  I considered that antenna, however, I was afraid

of the moving parts and the ability to reach it for service.  Instead, I put

two elements for 40 at the top of my tower, 8 feet higher I put an 11 
element beam for 10 through 20 and above that 5 elements on 6 meters.  All 
this on a 22 foot chrome molly mast turned by an Orion 2800.

The beams have no traps or moving parts so hopefully little to no maintence 
will be needed for years.

 The beams came from Array Solutions in TX and are manufactured by Optibeam 
in Germany.  Another quality product from the germans.

73,

Howard #3