Does anybody have any words of wisdom concerning the SteppIR antennas?
The participants in the Yahoo! group devoted to them all seem rapturous
-- except for the complaints about having to wait a couple of months for
their orders to be filled. All but one of the reviews on eham give it a
5/5; the only exception is a 3/5 by someone who doesn't own one and
*thinks* that the moving parts could present a maintenance and repair
problem.

-=-
Alan AB2OS

Alan,
I don't own one either, but I think I'd have
to go along with the 'maintenance and repair'
opinion. If it moves, it will break, eventually.
'Doc

PS - But, don't give me one, I won't give it back!

i've had a 3 element up 15 months or so
and the only problems i've had are self
inflicted or inflicted by squirrels. admittedly
my winters here in the dallas/ft worth metro
area are not as severe as new england. john
and company are really nice guys to deal with.
the beam in my estimation meets or exceeds
all advertised specs. the beam does not work
well on 6m in my opinion, but my frame of
reference for that band was a 5 element on a
30 foot boom. 20m - 10m it works like a fire
hose and the 180 degree is a great feature.
it's expensive but i'd buy one again with no
reservations.

larry
kd5foy

"Alan Beagley" wrote in message
...
Does anybody have any words of wisdom concerning the SteppIR antennas?
The participants in the Yahoo! group devoted to them all seem rapturous
-- except for the complaints about having to wait a couple of months for
their orders to be filled. All but one of the reviews on eham give it a
5/5; the only exception is a 3/5 by someone who doesn't own one and
*thinks* that the moving parts could present a maintenance and repair
problem.

-=-
Alan AB2OS

Rotors break, coax fails, connectors get water in them,
aluminum elements fracture and break off... Even if it
stands still it will eventually fail. Nothing is forever.

Pete


"'Doc" wrote in message ...
Alan,
I don't own one either, but I think I'd have
to go along with the 'maintenance and repair'
opinion. If it moves, it will break, eventually.
'Doc

PS - But, don't give me one, I won't give it back!

"buddy clark" wrote in message
. com...

i've had a 3 element up 15 months or so
and the only problems i've had are self
inflicted or inflicted by squirrels. admittedly
my winters here in the dallas/ft worth metro
area are not as severe as new england. john
and company are really nice guys to deal with.
the beam in my estimation meets or exceeds
all advertised specs. the beam does not work
well on 6m in my opinion, but my frame of
reference for that band was a 5 element on a
30 foot boom. 20m - 10m it works like a fire
hose and the 180 degree is a great feature.
it's expensive but i'd buy one again with no
reservations.

larry
kd5foy

"Alan Beagley" wrote in message
...
Does anybody have any words of wisdom concerning the SteppIR antennas?
The participants in the Yahoo! group devoted to them all seem rapturous
-- except for the complaints about having to wait a couple of months for
their orders to be filled. All but one of the reviews on eham give it a
5/5; the only exception is a 3/5 by someone who doesn't own one and
*thinks* that the moving parts could present a maintenance and repair
problem.

-=-
Alan AB2OS



yeah

what he said!
I've had one for years, one of the first 3el yagis;
I'm the guy in the QST review who said it "ignores ice".
Even here near Austin, TX it ices up from time to time, and the fact the ice
was not touching the radiators was obvious compared to some wire antennas I
have.

Someone can be over s-nine, hit the 180 button and they're noisy!

I have ordered the 4 element addition, they said they'd ship Sep.
Too late!

Also I have the big vertical.
The stepper motors are good for a huge number (10000's?) of cycles.
This is seriously good stuff.
H.
NQ5H

Uncle Peter wrote:
Nothing is forever.

Not even time. :-)
--
73, Cecil http://www.qsl.net/w5dxp



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buddy clark wrote:
the beam in my estimation meets or exceeds all advertised specs. the
beam does not work well on 6m in my opinion, but my frame of reference
for that band was a 5 element on a 30 foot boom.

If the element spacing is anything like adequate for 20m, it has to be
way too wide to be optimum on 6m.

I'd guess there is more performance to be had on 6m by adding a fixed
reflector and at least one director at an optimum spacing. Using only
the variable driven element and the variable-length director at the end
of the boom, that would turn it into a reasonable 4- or 5-element with
some dBs more forward gain. You'd lose the 180deg beam reversibility on
6m, but you could quickly remove the front/back ratio by lengthening the
director. On the lower bands, the 6m elements would have very little
effect.

Has anyone modeled this? Part of the trick would be to use a
close-spaced first director to keep the feedpoint impedance reasonably
close to 50 ohms (see www.cebik.com on Optimized Wideband Antennas).


--
73 from Ian G3SEK 'In Practice' columnist for RadCom (RSGB)
Editor, 'The VHF/UHF DX Book'
http://www.ifwtech.co.uk/g3sek

SteppIR sells a 4th element for 6 on the 3 el yagi and TWO six meter
elements for the 4 el yagi.
Yes, someone has modeled this.
;^)
H.
NQ5H
"Ian White, G3SEK" wrote in message
...
buddy clark wrote:
the beam in my estimation meets or exceeds all advertised specs. the
beam does not work well on 6m in my opinion, but my frame of reference
for that band was a 5 element on a 30 foot boom.

If the element spacing is anything like adequate for 20m, it has to be
way too wide to be optimum on 6m.

I'd guess there is more performance to be had on 6m by adding a fixed
reflector and at least one director at an optimum spacing. Using only
the variable driven element and the variable-length director at the end
of the boom, that would turn it into a reasonable 4- or 5-element with
some dBs more forward gain. You'd lose the 180deg beam reversibility on
6m, but you could quickly remove the front/back ratio by lengthening the
director. On the lower bands, the 6m elements would have very little
effect.

Has anyone modeled this? Part of the trick would be to use a
close-spaced first director to keep the feedpoint impedance reasonably
close to 50 ohms (see www.cebik.com on Optimized Wideband Antennas).


--
73 from Ian G3SEK 'In Practice' columnist for RadCom (RSGB)
Editor, 'The VHF/UHF DX Book'
http://www.ifwtech.co.uk/g3sek

On Tue, 30 Sep 2003 23:17:30 -0500, Cecil Moore
wrote:

Uncle Peter wrote:
Nothing is forever.

Not even time. :-)

This has yet to be conclusively demonstrated....

Ken K4XL


*** BoatAnchor Manual Archive ***
On the web at http://bama.sbc.edu and http://bama.edebris.com
FTP site info: bama.sbc.edu login: anonymous p/w: youremailadr

Kenneth Grimm wrote:
On Tue, 30 Sep 2003 23:17:30 -0500, Cecil Moore
wrote:


Uncle Peter wrote:

Nothing is forever.

Not even time. :-)


This has yet to be conclusively demonstrated....

Ken K4XL


Time is also warped, not just us