HD8200U coupler housing won't close - HELP!

[38Hickory]

My wife is ready to kill me.

I researched antennas extensively and bought the HD8200U. I followed the assembly instructions and when I got to Step 7, attaching the coupler housing I was more than frustrated.

I cannot get the coupler housing to close. Only 2 of the 4 clips will connect since the circuit board leads will not push down the 2 phasing wires. The cover went on easily over the mount on the antenna but only the fixed wires in the rear boom were there. Once I attached the front boom and had threaded the phasing wires into the box the cover now had to push the doubled wires down. No way. I am very afraid I am going to break something.

As I said, my wife is ready to kill me. Spent well over 200 on the antenna, pre-amp and mast and all for nothing. She wants to get Direct TV and forego further misery.

Me? I may deal with a little more misery and try one more time. Then it's return time if not successful. Anybody else see this problem or can suggest some help???

Thanks! ~Richard

[winegard]

The phasing lines from the UHF (front) section of the antenna go through a couple of holes under the antenna housing lip and line up with the 4 slotted peg in the antenna housing top. The cover should now snap in place.

http://www.winegard.com/kbase/upload/proper_phasing.pdf

[38Hickory]

Thank you for your quick response. I was able to feed the phasing lines of the front boom through the holes and overlaid them onto the existing ones in the rear boom. That was pretty easy. But when I went to place the cover onto the housing it would not close.

The diameter of the two overlaid phasing lines appears to be too thick for the prongs of the circuit board to push them down into the slotted peg. I can only get one side of the housing to click into place.

The total assembly was time consuming, but relatively easy. But I was SO frustrated to come so far and have everything fail. Any other ideas?

I need to get this put together tonight of my wife is threatening to call the DirectTV people. I want this antenna. All help and advice most welcome.

Cheers,

~Richard

[winegard]

overlaid them onto the existing ones in the rear boom

It sounds as if you are forcing them into the wrong position. Please take a look at the .pdf I attached in the previous post. The bottom two prongs sit down low closer to the outside of the cartridge housing. The top 2 prongs rest in the middle layed an inch above the others.

From your description it sounds as if you have fed them through the wrong holes or possibly bent them to go down on top of the others. The top 2 should be straight, in the middle, across the top.

[KNP 2516]

Solid Signal posted a help section in their ad that shows pictures of how to put the 8200U antenna together.

The instructions that came with the antenna was too vague.

As the person that made this post has already said, he put the wires in the wrong holes and he has the one set of phasing lines over top of the other set of phasing lines.

The antenna its self is easy to assemble, since there are only a couple of pieces and a couple of screws that holds it together.

Just a small note, in the past - before DTV came along, I assembled many Radio Shack VU 190 antenna's and they had twice as many nuts, bolts and washers as does the 8200U and took twice as long to assemble.

The problem is - you need to put a couple of them together to get the hang of it and then you can put them together in about 10 minutes. That's why you PAY a antenna installer to put your antenna up for you!