I have been loading my tower with a MonstIR on top at 83' for about 8 years
without any issues. I could not ground the end elements as I have the 60/80M
dipole option. I tune the MonstIR to 7.050 when on 160M. I can move the 160M
resonance quite a bit by lengthening or shortening the MonstIR. I use an
omega match at the bottom of the tower with a vacuum relay to switch caps to
cover all of 160M.
My gamma is at 40' because I have two rotating side mounted beams at 45' and
50'. The gamma is made up of 3 parallel wires the width of Rohn 45 spaced 2'
from the tower.
No arcing or sputtering so far.
73,
N2TK, Tony
-----Original Message-----
From: Topband [mailto:topband-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Tree
Sent: Wednesday, October 14, 2015 6:37 PM
To: 160 <topband@contesting.com>
Subject: Topband: Loading tower with SteppIR on top
Good day all - thought I would share some more experience I have had with
loading a tower with a SteppIR on top of it.
As I reported last season - I used a loaded tower at NE7D with a DB-18E on
it to work the K1N DX pedition.
Recently - I acquired a MonsterIR and after talking to ZL3IX, I decided to
connect the two elements at each end of the boom to the boom. This is
pretty easy to do - contact me off list if you want more data.
I am happy to report this all seems to be working with no issues to the
normal operation of the beam. The tower is 77 feet tall and works very well
with "only" 20 radials on the ground. I will be increasing it to about 40
soon.
I also asked SteppIR if they had ever had any customer complain about
problems associated with loading a tower with one of their antennas on top
- and they have not. Of course - it might just mean the ZL3IX, NE7D and I
are the only ones who have tried. :-)
I find that the frequency setting for the Monster affects things on 160
meters as expected. I can move the low SWR point up and down the band some.
My nominal setting for 1825 kHz is around 9 MHz. My gamma is about
45 feet high - spaced two feet from the tower. I don't know my exact gamma
capacitance - but it equates to about 10 feet of RG8 coax used as a
capacitor.
See you on the band!! I also put up a Hi-Z 4 square for RXing.
Oh - and the PreStew is coming up in about 10 days!!!
Tree N6TR/7
Hillsboro, OR
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