Ok, hopefully I won't spam the list from here like I did yesterday!
I've been lurking here for awhile, and I do have to admit the
discussions in the last few months have been very appropos to my
current project. After 19 years of being licensed, I'm finally going
to put up my first tower. I'm in a pretty windy area, and on a
limited budget, so I'm being conservative and putting up 70' of Rohn
25G. (Max height with 2 guys).. I've finally won a 3 week long battle
with the county Planning & Zoning (and I live literally in the middle
of nowhere on 35.63 Acres..[Beverages!]..sigh...), so I'm getting
excited...
I'm intersted in knowing if the comparisons of the quad vs the SteppIR
was comparing a 2 ele Quad with the three ele SteppIR? From a
strictly academic point of view, since the SteppIR retunes in a fairly
High-Q state on each frequency it would seem that F/B would be better
than a quad, especially over an entire band. Gain should be
marginally better with 3-ele vs 2.
I ask this because I really wanted to buy a SteppIR-- I was and am
still fascinated by the design. And like just about everyone with
their first tower, I grossly underestimated the cost of the hardware
to put it up. So yeah, it's costing me $1200 to put up $200 with of
used 25G in good shape. Probably not a suprise to many here.
That killed me being able to get the SteppIR. The Quad was cheap,
even though I added 6m and had it built on a 3" boom it was well less
than $400 new from Lightning Bolt. This and it's easy multiband
ability and realtively low windloading (on the 2-ele!) seemed like a
good compromise for a first setup.
I don't like the single feed system Mike uses, but then again it hurts
12m and 10m the most, and until the cycle come up, should I care?
Modeling the antenna on NEC-2 on 10m doesn't look too good as it is.
Is the performance of the SteppIR worth the 4-5x price differential?
I guess for serious contesters or DXers a dB or two is a big deal, but
I'm a very casual operator, with much less time for ham radio than I'd
like.
If so, I'll start saving for one to purchase in 2-3 years...
I'd also like to know how the guys with the quads here have raised the
quad onto a guyed tower? Would a tram line w/a temporary mast
extension work okay for this, or should I plan on a crane or bucket
truck?
Oh, what do you guys think of Half Squares for the low bands? (I have
a nice tree 200' away from the tower due SW..) Would there be too
much interaction using a tower as one support end?
I've got more to ask, but I'll save it for later! (!)
Fred Spinner, W0FMS
EN42eg 20mi N of Cedar Rapids, IA
_______________________________________________
See: http://www.mscomputer.com for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless Weather
Stations", and lot's more. Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any questions
and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
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