The cut-away SteppIR I saw didn't have wires inside.... the elements were
flat strips about .5" wide with regular holes punched every quarter inch or
so. Those holes travel on a toothed gear which drives the elemnts in and
out, sliding inside the fiberglas tubular arms. Very nicely designed and
set-up, and I was told they have driven one through a million cycles or more
with zero failures. I'm saving my shekels for one. Jerry K3BZ
-----Original Message-----
From: towertalk-admin@contesting.com
[mailto:towertalk-admin@contesting.com]On Behalf Of Rick Tavan
Sent: Thursday, December 19, 2002 1:37 AM
To: Ragnar Otterstad
Cc: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [Towertalk] SteppIR and results
It's a pretty new antenna. I think this is its first or second winter in
production use. My unit went up only this past September. It survived a
ferocious wind, snow and ice storm during the 10m contest that blew the
top 15' off a healthy 60' pine tree in my yard. I don't have an
anemometer but the winds were pretty wild. It drooped quite a bit when
coated with ice but sprang back fine when the ice melted. I'm on a small
ridge at about 6200 feet in the Tahoe Sierra with some sparse tree
shielding. I don't think MTBF data is useful for antennas which are
installed in wildly different environments.
There has been discussion of the beryllium issue on the SteppIR reflector
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SteppIR
FluidMotion, the manufacturer, says the material is only toxic when
ground into a fine powder and inhaled. So don't breathe after grinding
up these wires. ;-) I assembled and installed the antenna without ever
seeing the beryllium wires. They are wound up inside a rigid housing
until the antenna is assembled and its control line powered up. Then
they move inside the fiberglass poles that constitute the visible
"elements."
73,
/Rick N6XI
Ragnar Otterstad wrote:
>My only reservation with the SteppIR antenna is mechanical reliablility.
How
>long has it been in service and what is the MTBF roughly ?
>
>They are using BeCu material, which is very strong but also highly toxic.
Any
>environmental problems ?
>
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