[asbman]

I was told on November 27, 2002 that within the next week or so there will be a Televes antenna dealer in the USA. They will be stocking both the DAT45 and the DAT 75 as well as the MRD and active coupler.


I was also told they should have "competitive" pricing.


I was given the following email address to send an email for pricing and delivery information and I wanted to pass it along to any interested parties:

[email protected]


They are an Audio/Visual dealer from what I'm told.


"Finally a US dealer"!!!!!

 

[Maynard]

Was wondering how long it would take. Those shipping charges from europe were a little much.

 

[iceman143]

jeff,


My DAT75 outperformed my CM although both are good UHF antennas.

 

[dynamohum1]

My DAT75 was my first yagi but it easily bested my channelmaster bowtie setup for what I was trying to do (distant station, 60+ miles) that said, the CM bowtie was a fine antenna for the in town locals.

 

[magic123]

Jeff..


The DAT75 is highly directional..you do need a rotator. It has high gain; somewhat more than the CM and Winegard and it is built very well. It seems it will last and do a good job for many years. It is good up to 50 miles..and slightly beyond in some cases..just depends...mostly, on a good 'line of sight' to the transmitters.

 

[dynamohum1]

I had the Channelmaster 4 bay up and could get a signal strength reading of around 20 - 35 on the station I wanted, it would come in maybe for a few minutes on a good night so I knew it was possible to get it with the right antenna.After the DAT75 was installed with rotor and preamp I was able to get 100 as the reading on my Toshiba box with no breakups at all. I also noticed an abundance of snowy analog stations that were not there before from around 80 - 100 miles away, that tells me that with more height and possibly a stack I can get out even futher.

 

[asbman]

I just got an email with pricing:


DAT75 shipped to the East Coast $120.00


DAT75 shipped to the West Coast $128.50


They told me they are flying in the antennas but if people wanted to wait they would have some come in by ship and then the cost would be lower, but the wait time would be longer.


Wanted to let everyone know.


Enjoy

 

[timmy1376]

Who are they, what about us in the midwest, and how long before the boat comes in??

 

[Aliens]

They are: [email protected]


The actual cost of the antenna is $81.25, so there is a huge mark-up on shipping. I'm waiting for the boat shipment to lower the cost. The current pricing is not that much more than what it was shipping for from overseas. As a comparison, the CM4248 comes in a 7' box and ships for $21.

 

[asbman]

I was a little leary too so the company gave me the box dimensions and I checked with UPS and shipping costs to the East coast are $38.75 and to West coast $48.13 from the company's midwest location.


The shipping costs from the UK are $77.85 from the company there for a total cost of $134.47 US.


I guess it is the size of the package. It is .5 inches under the UPS shipping allowance for package size, so UPS charges oversized package rates.


I think the CM4248 is in a smaller package, width and height wise.


So I guess if you want to order from the UK go ahead it only costs more!!

 

[magic123]

Seems as tho the difference is very slight. Seems as if Televes wants to go this way..shipping directly to a company in USA, the design of antenna would have to be varied somewhat. As for me, the antenna is very well made and should last for many, many years; so I do not think the total cost is excessive (paid $136. delivered to my door and 3 day service)

 

[magic123]

By the way, then the smaller Dat45 would cost less to ship and price is somewhat lower; so, I would think the DAT45 would do very well for up to 40 miles reception but I am not sure of course.

 

[dynamohum1]

I posted this before, if I were selling these I would do a little repackaging and cut at least half off the shipping bill. The box is big and flimsy so it is bolstered by yards and yards of crumpled paper, if you shipped it in 2 boxes that were of better construction you could cut the size down considerably.

 

[asbman]

I asked the company the same thing why not ship 2 boxes, ( I want to buy 3 antennas).

They said it would cost exactly $1.64 cents less, in shipping costs and then the company would have to charge more for the second box.


They are trying their best to get the costs down and have assured me if they can get them lowered they are going to pass the discount along to the customer. They are a big company. I asked a friend of mine in Chicago if he ever heard of them and he said YES. I guess they do a lot of work in the commerical audio/visual market.


I just feel that if something goes wrong, shipping damage etc. or warranty work I have purchased from a company in the USA and it should be easier to get things corrected.


By the way the DAT45 was considerably less, due to the shipping about $80.00.

 

[dynamohum1]

What would it cost to ship the long elements in a small long narrow box and the panels and other hardware in another box? I ship a lot of stuff at work and it just seems like it would be a lot less, have you seen how these are packed? I get 60" rolls of paper that weigh 20 times what this antenna weighs and they ship for less than half of what I am hearing.

 

[iceman143]

Interesting pricing. It seems to be about the same to ship from mid-USA as from UK?


CM makes a 3023 which is the 4248 in two pieces for shipping purposes. If shipping for the DAT75 is so much as it is designed, how hard would it be to make it in two pieces with two screws to fasten it back together? I've had big pieces of furniture truck-shipped to my door for just a little more.


The DAT75 is quality build but it is somewhat disappointing that there seems to be little savings by buying in USA.


Jeff,

My DAT75 did bring in some stations that the CM failed to hold and it brought in one station that the CM received no discernable signal.

 

[asbman]

As I am sure magic123 would agree, there is no weight to the unit. The shipping companies charge by the size, not the weight for this puppy. The package is 73 inches long but the killer is the 24 inch width. When you add this all up the shipping companies feel the package is taking up a lot more space for it minor weight and they are losing money!


Envir. Services thought it would be cheaper shipping 2 packages but the shipping companies still charge by the size for the unit(s) not the weight, besides the $1.64 shipping savings is easily eaten up by the cost of the second box.


By the way my cost to Indiana was $117.50 for a single unit for a savings of $17.00 if I would have bought it from the UK.


IMHO

 

[jurassicjockey]

For those of us in Canada, it's cheaper to order direct from the UK still. I picked up my DAT75 for 160 Cdn (or about $100 US) from CPC

 

[iceman143]

Aliens,


I'm assuming from your post the $81.25 is the cost of the delivered DAT75 to Chicago. The shipping charge of approx $50 is from Chicago to consumer since the antennas are not direct ship from Spain to consumer under the purchases through environmental services. Is this a correct assumption?

 

[Aliens]

iceman143,


The $81.25 was the price they quoted me for the antenna only. I'm awaiting a reply for the shipping cost from them. I will wait for the boat delivery to arrive before I purchase one. I went from a CM4228, to the CM4248 in a months time and I can wait, otherwise, 1. my wife will kill me. 2. I can start my own antenna sales business at the rate I'm buying these things. I will say, all of the CM's have performed well. Just trying to get the best reception possible, but I may never be satisfied. Fortunately they are all relatively cheap, not like buying high end electronics.