Thanks for the help everyone.  The manual I have, which is on PDF, for some reason was missing entire chunks of instruction.  I downloaded a proper copy and it finally made sense.

I've called the cement company already.  2.7 cubic yards of 2000 PSI concrete isn't cheap.

Again, thanks for the help.

Art, K4TNX ex. NH7FL

Hello All
I'm ready to install my tower (HG54hd Hygain). My base arrived today and I'm a bit confused. The base cage is welded and fits however there are loose pieces of rebar in the box. Other than the mounting brackets it's as though they included all the pieces to essentially make another base. They are loose and zip tied to the base, what are these for?. I'm new to towers so any help is appreciated.

Art K4TNX ex NH7FL

So the tower was purchased and successfully taken down and moved however I learned a lesson, this thing was HEAVY, and very difficult to work with!!!!  There we're three of us and it took 3 hours to get it slowly loaded onto a trailer.  Sure felt like it weights more than 660, but it's now happily waiting to be installed at the QTH.

Thanks everyone,
I'm about to purchase said tower from a gentleman who is selling it locally, about a 50 mile drive and I'm trying to figure out how many friends I need to help me load it onto a long flatbed trailer.  Thankfully at 22 feet retraced it will be somewhat manageable.

I've been scouring the internet but can't find the shipping weight of a Hygain HG54HD crank up tower. Anyone know??

Again, appreciate all the help and comments.  So here is the final verdict.  Got another ham to help me out... hooked it up to a 2KW dummy load and a quality wattmeter.  Essentially the results were the same.... Even used 2 different radios to excite.  Called ameritron with all the pertinent data and was told I most likely have some bad tubes.  Tested my tuner and antenna on a solid state amp and got full power output with that validating that my tuner meter was very close to the actual output though off a bit in the other direction so even less power out.  I also replaced the feed line with some beefy coax while I was at it. I'm not sure whether to send the amp to ameritron or return it, just spend the extra money and get a different brand/model.  Hopefully I'll have better luck in the future, for now 100W will have to do.  I've learned a whole lot, and again, appreciate all the help I've received. 

-Art

I'm using the meter on the tuner, however I don't think it would be off by 300-400 watts, however I'll take any advice here.

I don't have the ALC hooked up.. only the relay.

A follow up to the old amp postings I left a few days ago. So here is the story on the new amp (exchanged).  The old tuning problems are gone, and at 20 meters the power supply no longer shuts off.  The amp will easily tune and I can drive it up to 300 watts easily with just a little bit of power, about 20-25W will produce 300 out... however it won't do any more then that..except on 80 it will top out at around 500.  Am I doing something wrong here?  Very frustrated. The amp hits a wall... plate current maxes out 450ma and no more.. grid current shoots up as I excite with a bit more power but no more out.   

Link to old thread.

http://www.eham.net/ehamforum/smf/index.php/topic,84196.0.html

Thanks everyone for the help.  I re-checked everything and still have the poor power output.  As for the power supply/radio cutting out on 20... I have had no issues with input or output SWR being high... it's only slightly elevated on 17 meters (1.5)  Also, I've noticed that the power supply cuts out on the SSB portion of 20 with very little drive... and only cuts out on the lower portion of 20 meters if I run it at quite a bit more drive.  Also, a bit more info.  I can get quite a bit more power on the lower bands (about 500W) vs only about 250 tops 17 and up.... Very frustrating.  I did hook it up to the antenna system and had so SWR issues or any serious RFI in the shack. (touchlamps go off but they do that barefoot at 10W) ....

I should have been clearer before I asked. This is the 811h purchased brand new from HRO. One of the white ceramic tube sockets is cracked and I've noticed that on that tube one of the filaments glows very brightly during transmit.  I can't get more then 350 watts out of the amp (dummy load). Here is another thing that's a bit scary. On 20 meters when I excite with about 30w or so my power supply running to my radio either shorts out or something? and the rig shuts off. (astron 35a) there is nothing else running off that power supply other then my 590S. Only happens on 20M. Puzzled. When I switch it off then back on everything comes back to life  Anyhow amp is going back to HRO for replacement. 

So I've got a few more questions from the QRO noob.  I've followed the procedures in the manual but can't seem to get very much power out of this thing... about 400W max on most the bands save 80 meters with a drive of about 65 watts.  I inspected the inside and found the ceramic base on one of the tube holders to be cracked... which makes me wonder what else might be wrong.  I've seen this amp in operation before and it didn't behave like this one.  Suggestions?

Got it figured out finally.. Thanks for the suggestions.  I ended up transposing PIN2 ... re-soldered and amp keys up.

I finally took the plunge and got myself a linear amplifier and a capable tuner.  I've read all the instructions but am having trouble getting the amp to key up.  I'm using a Kenwood TS-590S and an Ameritron AL811H.  I've made all the connections but I think I'm missing something as far as the settings go.  Other then the obvious coaxial settings which i"ve checked and found to work fine, what do I need to hook up as far as the keying piece that I'm missing and what radio settings do I need to get the thing to key up?  Manuals are very vague on this.

Thanks Art,
NH7FL

Greetings,

I've been playing around with HRD and DM780 and quite like the suite however I've found that I can't get any of the Macros edited in DM aside from the pre filled information.  I have the latest version which came out a couple of days ago.  I've been able to find other threads which acknowledge that it was a bug, but having read the release info on the new version this was something that was going to be fixed in the version I have now. I'm puzzled.  This is a real problem when trying to work PSK.  I can't complain since the software is free however any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Art NH7FL