[OT] SteppIR antenna summary

[Bill Frantz]

The responses about SteppIR antennas have died down so here is,
as promised, the summary.

Five people reported no problems with a total of 39 years of
experience. An additional responder had no problems, but did not
give the length of his experience. One of these responders is
near the ocean.

Another responder lives in coastal New England where he
experiences high winds, but reports no weather related damage.
He has not had a major ice storm, but did have damage from a
lightning strike.

Three people report failures in the EHU (the device that moves
the extensible antenna element), including one "out of the box",
two due to lightning strikes, and one due to an hour of 120 MPH
winds. Another reports having to lower the antenna 4 times since
2004 for unspecified repairs.

Several people point out that SteppIR has made significant
improvements over the last 15 years, fixing some of the problems
that caused early failures. One said that he had fewer problems
with his 13 year old SteppIR than he had had with a Butternut vertical.

Many say they get performance similar to what they would get
with a bunch of monoband Yagis. Some sing the praises of
crank-up/tilt-over towers to make antenna access easy.


My take on all this is that the SteppIR antennas are significant
mechanical devices, much more complex than multi and
monobanders. Since any antenna can fail, there should be a
repair plan for antennas. Given the time I've spent repairing my
wire antennas, SteppIRs don't seem to be particularly unreliable.

73 Bill AE6JV

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Bill Frantz        | I don't have high-speed      | Periwinkle
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I have used the 4el SteppIR at AI6V's (SK) Aruba home a few times. Being a
contester I had hardly ever operated on the WARC bands and I had an
absolute blast using the SteppIR on 12m and 17m. Unfortunately the SteppIR
quit working about a year ago and it has not been repaired. Two things not
mentioned in your summary is the wait for the antenna to adjust when
changing bands and that you cannot operate on two bands simultaneously.

John KK9A aka P40A

Bill Frantz frantz at pwpconsult.com
Mon May 2 14:16:47 EDT 2016

The responses about SteppIR antennas have died down so here is,
as promised, the summary.

Five people reported no problems with a total of 39 years of
experience. An additional responder had no problems, but did not
give the length of his experience. One of these responders is
near the ocean.

Another responder lives in coastal New England where he
experiences high winds, but reports no weather related damage.
He has not had a major ice storm, but did have damage from a
lightning strike.

Three people report failures in the EHU (the device that moves
the extensible antenna element), including one "out of the box",
two due to lightning strikes, and one due to an hour of 120 MPH
winds. Another reports having to lower the antenna 4 times since
2004 for unspecified repairs.

Several people point out that SteppIR has made significant
improvements over the last 15 years, fixing some of the problems
that caused early failures. One said that he had fewer problems
with his 13 year old SteppIR than he had had with a Butternut vertical.

Many say they get performance similar to what they would get
with a bunch of monoband Yagis. Some sing the praises of
crank-up/tilt-over towers to make antenna access easy.


My take on all this is that the SteppIR antennas are significant
mechanical devices, much more complex than multi and
monobanders. Since any antenna can fail, there should be a
repair plan for antennas. Given the time I've spent repairing my
wire antennas, SteppIRs don't seem to be particularly unreliable.

73 Bill AE6JV

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[Edward R Cole]

After posting my query on how Steppir handles cold/icy wx, I received
a reply from Michael, k5wmg, suggesting I might look at the Tennadyne
T8 log-periodic.

I had looked at the log-periodic in years past  for VHF and passed at
they were quite big for minimal gain.  But the typical 3-element HF
yagi has 6-dB gain in free space so the 5.8 dB gain of the 8-element
T8 on 18-foot boom would be comparable with the plus that a tuner
would not likely be needed (besides I have a manual tuner should it be needed).

What is a deciding factor for me is $788 vs over $2K for the basic
3-element Steppir (not including optional accessories).

I briefly looked at the T11 ($910) which covers 13.5-54 MHz but the
extra cost and added elements on 24-foot boom would not make sense
since I already have a 6-element 6m yagi and a fixed pointed 3-element 6m yagi.

Probably will not do anything until the elderly TH3mk4 looses an
element or a trap goes bad.


73, Ed - KL7UW
http://www.kl7uw.com
     "Kits made by KL7UW"
Dubus Mag business:
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