Some anecdotal info on use of Steppir antennas on loaded towers.
I have never heard of anyone experiencing arcing. This also includes using
other antennas with isolated elements (like KLM). There just isn't going
to be a potential difference.
I have helped several locals load their towers with Steppirs on them - and
nobody has had an issue. ZL3IX uses an original Monster - as do I - on a
loaded tower.
When I first did mine - I purposely connected the elements at each end of
the boom to the boom electrically. This was on a 77 foot tower and I found
putting the Steppir on 30 meters yielded a good mach with a gamm up about
45 feet. However, I had one issue that might - or might not - have had
anything to do with 160 meter operation. After a few months - both motors
at each end of the boom were frozen. This was a mechanical issue. The
antenna I put up was used - and had many miles on it - so it is hard to say
what was the root cause. I did have some lightning that could have been a
contributor - but how connecting the boom to the element would affect the
motors is beyond me.
After fixing the motors - I decided to home the elements and use a loading
wire off the tower of the tower. My new installation doesn't need any
loading from the elements - since my tower height is now 97 feet and the
boom alone is enough top loading.
I still feel your tower is too tall - but we have already talked about
that. I do not know if modeling really works for this - but haven't
seriously tried it.
Tree N6TR/7
Manning, OR
On Mon, Dec 10, 2018 at 8:47 AM Kenny Silverman <kenny.k2kw@gmail.com>
wrote:
> Hi All, we’re planning on gamma loading a 130’ tower with a stack of
> StepIR antennas using a cage for the shunt wire. We have modeled the
> tower. Question: is the model sufficient to determine the gamma wire
> height? Or is the procedure to use a single wire to per the model height
> first to find the 50 ohm point and then build the cage to fit the length?
>
> Also, any tips on shorting the elements on the StepIR dream beam so they
> won’t arc? Any anecdotal info on StepIR antennas on the shunted tower?
>
> Regards , Kenny K2KW
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