BEWARE bad seller - Bouke Zwerver PA0ZH
Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2011 6:34 pm
In over 40 years as a ham and over 15 years as a participant in various ham and non-ham internet forums, until now I have never said an unkind word about anyone. It truly pains me to write this about a fellow ham and EMEer, but potential customers of this man need to be warned.
Bouke Zwerver PA0ZH advertised for sale on the Moon Net EME mailing list a kilowatt GS-35b amp for 70 cm with a complete internal Bird wattmeter. It was said to be one year old and in 100% working condition. I bought the amp and paid him an extra 100 EUR for 2 internal T/R switching relays and connectors.
The amp arrived here in Slovakia with a tilted plate cavity (it was not secured to its base), with 17 of the 20 screws for the cabinet cover missing, with no slug for the Bird meter, and with a Load control that did not move the loading capacitor (the control was attached to the capacitor by a series of gears, but the gears did not move when the control was turned). I emailed Bouke 3 times and asked where was the slug, no response. He did reply to my query about the Load control, he said, "Don't worry about that, it is already set for a 50 ohm load."
Several days later, after the 70cm antenna was raised, I connected the amp to the rig and the antenna. Without even turning the amp on, I noticed that the pass-through circuitry in the amp dropped the output from my FT-847 from 50 watts to under 20 watts. I turned on the amp, applied 5 watts of drive, and tuned up the amp as instructed by Bouke - no output at all. Two experienced Slovak hams came over to my shack to try to diagnose the problem - no success. We eventually were able to get 200 watts out but the amp oscillated when more drive was applied.
Bouke responded to my emails with ugly rants about how dumb and imcompetent I must be, and how it must be all my fault that the amp was "blown up." He said I had asked many "so many stupid and simple questions" on Moon Net, which supposedly proved I could not be taken seriously. When I advised that there was only 20 watts out even with the amp turned off, he said this was "impossible," even though I sent him a video to prove it. When I advised that Slovak hams had checked the amp, he insulted them as "village people" and said I was stupid to allow "Slovak blacksmiths" to touch it. He asked me to try a couple of tests, such as bypassing the relays and connecting the input directly to the cavity input, and then connecting the antenna directly to the cavity output. I did everything he suggested and reported the results, he said I must have done it wrong and asked me to repeat the same tests.
I had enough and asked politely for a refund, either a full refund and I would return the amp to him, or a partial refund and I would resell the amp in "as is" condition to someone else. He refused and rejected all my efforts to reach a fair compromise solution. I am taking him to court.
Anyone considering buying anything from this gentleman, proceed with caution.
73, Bill NZ5N/OM3BD
Bouke Zwerver PA0ZH advertised for sale on the Moon Net EME mailing list a kilowatt GS-35b amp for 70 cm with a complete internal Bird wattmeter. It was said to be one year old and in 100% working condition. I bought the amp and paid him an extra 100 EUR for 2 internal T/R switching relays and connectors.
The amp arrived here in Slovakia with a tilted plate cavity (it was not secured to its base), with 17 of the 20 screws for the cabinet cover missing, with no slug for the Bird meter, and with a Load control that did not move the loading capacitor (the control was attached to the capacitor by a series of gears, but the gears did not move when the control was turned). I emailed Bouke 3 times and asked where was the slug, no response. He did reply to my query about the Load control, he said, "Don't worry about that, it is already set for a 50 ohm load."
Several days later, after the 70cm antenna was raised, I connected the amp to the rig and the antenna. Without even turning the amp on, I noticed that the pass-through circuitry in the amp dropped the output from my FT-847 from 50 watts to under 20 watts. I turned on the amp, applied 5 watts of drive, and tuned up the amp as instructed by Bouke - no output at all. Two experienced Slovak hams came over to my shack to try to diagnose the problem - no success. We eventually were able to get 200 watts out but the amp oscillated when more drive was applied.
Bouke responded to my emails with ugly rants about how dumb and imcompetent I must be, and how it must be all my fault that the amp was "blown up." He said I had asked many "so many stupid and simple questions" on Moon Net, which supposedly proved I could not be taken seriously. When I advised that there was only 20 watts out even with the amp turned off, he said this was "impossible," even though I sent him a video to prove it. When I advised that Slovak hams had checked the amp, he insulted them as "village people" and said I was stupid to allow "Slovak blacksmiths" to touch it. He asked me to try a couple of tests, such as bypassing the relays and connecting the input directly to the cavity input, and then connecting the antenna directly to the cavity output. I did everything he suggested and reported the results, he said I must have done it wrong and asked me to repeat the same tests.
I had enough and asked politely for a refund, either a full refund and I would return the amp to him, or a partial refund and I would resell the amp in "as is" condition to someone else. He refused and rejected all my efforts to reach a fair compromise solution. I am taking him to court.
Anyone considering buying anything from this gentleman, proceed with caution.
73, Bill NZ5N/OM3BD