New spt500 gamma

[Xracerx13]

I set a new one up for a friend about 5 years ago and the two pieces of metal for the match were straight. Out of the box straight, and they had to be bent by us. Stupid if you ask me. but I did it right. Made it look just like my 70's penetrator match. Worked fine.

 

[Smokinone]

This is not the SP-500 of years ago, they should have left it alone.
They all worked fine back then and were simple to tune, but they "fixed" it...........
I ran a old one for years before I switched to a I-10K and it weathered storms just fine, never broke.
The material they are building them out of is soft, the "redesigned" match was really bent out of shape out of the box.
MFJ has struck out again.


73
Jeff

Not that this will help, but, I have a SPT500 that is the older style MFJ "copy". It's been up for years and was not a problem to tune that I can remember. It has bent a little, the mount to the pole seems soft. I never had an original, but like everything else that gets taken over by other than the original companies, they try and cheap out for more profit and I think in the long term put themselves out of business.
Kinda like Taco Bell not having enchoritos and mexican pizzas any more. And Arby's shutting down potato cakes and ham and cheese sandwiches.
Their claims are "we're making it better". So many restaurants I used to frequent that are now out of business because they started out with great offerings, then change what every ones used to with their initial brand with something different or change owners that have a better idea for the working established model.
Sorry for the food analogy, off topic a little...now I'm hungry.

 

[Ranch55]

I still have an "original" , new in the box SPT 500 that has never been out of the box. I think it is about mid '80's model......
Interested ?

 

[snippits75]

Heads up if you buy a Penetrator, and it will not tune.

Over at DX Engineering reviews, a reviewer(Chris) posted pictures four days ago that the SO-239 is assembled wrong from the factory.

https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/hgn-spt-500

 

[whiteastro]

Heads up if you buy a Penetrator, and it will not tune.

Over at DX Engineering reviews, a reviewer(Chris) posted pictures four days ago that the SO-239 is assembled wrong from the factory.

https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/hgn-spt-500

That's not the only thing wrong from the factory. The top insulator on the matching device was installed upside down causeing it to short out in the rain. ( Long side Up ) Flip it over or make a extension for it like I did and it is golden. Been discussed in this forum several times. Do a search.