I am now in the market for a new vertical

My old R7000 was mounted on a 45 foot Tower. (At this height, the antenna
worked great!)

I am considering purchasing a SmallIR vertical (from www.steppir.com) and
mounting it on this 45 foot tower with radials dropping downward.

Rob, You must enjoy spending money on antennas:-) If you can get an inverted
vee up 45' at apex, and feed it with ladder line and a tuner, then you have
something that will exceed what you are proposing. A 50-65' per leg vee will
get you on 80M-10M, and possibly 160M.

The performance on the lower bands (160M-40M) will exceed any store bought
vertical. On 20M-10M you may not see any difference in performance, depends on
what dx you are trying to snag.

If you are going to put a vertical 45' in the air with radials sloping
downward, why not try ladder line and a tuner and see what happens. You will
spend considerably less $.

73 Gary N4AST