SteppIR comments?

[Vinnie]

Gotta put up a new beam, the 30 plus year old TH6 is about done for. Thinking seriously of a 4 el SteppIR, since it will likely be my 'last antenna' (if it lasts for 30 years). Anybody have any experience with that antenna???

[PA5COR]

30 years? electric motors moving bands of copper?

I hope it will last that long, but i heard of some problems with the motors and moving strips of (element) copper.
The idea is good, but make sure you can get to that antenna for repairs easy.

;)

[KU0DM]

Never owned one, however a close friend of mine who is now SK had a 4 element at 30 meters. It kicked major ass in pile-ups, and held it's own in contests. I can only speak for on-air performance, but I loved it with a passion.

[N9FE]

Hope you don't have ice storms. You won't like it if you do.

[W5GA]

I built and installed one for a local ham a couple years ago:
1. The 4 el is heavier than a dead horse, and correspondingly difficult to get in place on the tower. IIRC, 160 lbs. or so.
2. It's an erector set, held together by electrical tape (I kid you not).
3. The motors DO NOT have a good reputation. Read #1 again and think about trips up and down, up and down.
4. It will only outperform a fixed antenna on one frequency on any given band.
5. Gain suffers due to element spacing.
6. Front to back suffers due to element spacing.
7. Sure, it's got a flat swr...so what? You can do much the same thing with a multiple DE design.
8. Where the fiberglass poles attach to the boom, it uses plumbing boots (honest to god), hose clamps and tape to seal it all.

If you want longevity, look elsewhere. I'd recommend a TH-11.

[N8YX]

Ryan has a Steppir and IIRC had problems with one of the motor units, necessitating the lowering of the antenna and the removal and replacement of the defective unit. Not something I would want to do on a frequent basis. As Doug points out, the Steppir's inter-element spacing is optimized for only one range of frequencies. Alas, element positioning on the boom cannot be varied as with element "length".

My choices for an antenna would be (in order):

1) Mosley Pro - series (if you've got the coin, go with a Pro-96-S)
2) TH-11DX
3) Optibeam 5-bander

If low VSWR across a wide range of frequencies is your goal, consider a 6- or 10-30MHz LPDA. Gain and F/B ratio will be a bit less than that of a conventional multi-band or monoband yagi design but it's usable everywhere. Something to consider if you participate in MARS activities...

[Vinnie]

Interesting comments.
Putting up and down not that big a problem IF (if!) there are those kinds of problems. That's what the crane is for!
But, I also want to work the HF WARC bands. Hard to do with the usual yagi.
Anyhow, that plan is on the back burner for a few months,
I went and bought a K-3 a couple of days back, so the ham radio account has to be built back up to an acceptable level.......

[KJ3N]

1. The 4 el is heavier than a dead horse, and correspondingly difficult to get in place on the tower. IIRC, 160 lbs. or so.
2. It's an erector set, held together by electrical tape (I kid you not).
3. The motors DO NOT have a good reputation. Read #1 again and think about trips up and down, up and down.
4. It will only outperform a fixed antenna on one frequency on any given band.
5. Gain suffers due to element spacing.
6. Front to back suffers due to element spacing.
7. Sure, it's got a flat swr...so what? You can do much the same thing with a multiple DE design.
8. Where the fiberglass poles attach to the boom, it uses plumbing boots (honest to god), hose clamps and tape to seal it all.

If you want longevity, look elsewhere. I'd recommend a TH-11.

Geez, what a pain in the ass.

Since a tower isn't in my plans anyway, I'll stick with my wires.

E4X 30/05/2010 23:33 14Mhz 5/9 5/9



"Of course, that's just my opinion; I could be wrong." :monkeydance:

[KG4CGC]

I've heard HIGH praise and FOUL cursing of these antennas since the time I learned of their existence and that wasn't really that long ago, 3 or 4 years maybe?
Sounds like a great idea that could have been better executed. It's like the friend you had in high school that wanted to put a jet motor on his car that could be actuated with the push of a button but would remain concealed until needed. Years go by and you're sitting at the breakfest table reading the paper when you stumble across a story about a guy who turned his car into a rocket while on an open highway and the story ends with the vehicle being extracted out of the side of a mountain and nothing is identifiable except for a piece of "Trans Am" logo in a broken tree a half mile back.

[N9FE]

99% Of the time everyone's on 20 meters. If i did alot of higher band work i would get a 20 meter monoband beam.