If your a contester and your tower can handle the extra weight and
windload... I like Buddy's idea. Having stacked antennas offers tremendous
"take
off angle" and "dual direction" advantages that far outweigh the extra 1-2
dB gain of the SteppIR. Having the 2nd antenna at the better take off
angle or pointed in the right direction could easily give a 10dB advantage.
(unless you stack SteppIRs)
One of my 3-element SteppIR motors kicked the bucket when only about 6
months old... I didn't enjoy having to drop the antenna and wait for parts.
That said, it was a great antenna when it worked.
73,
Dick- K9OM
In a message dated 1/22/2010 8:50:06 AM Eastern Standard Time,
gdadx2@clearwire.net writes:
Doug & others,
I am going to put up a new antenna this spring, and my choices came down
to
either a LP, such as the T-10, or a 3-element SteppIR.
I decided on the T-10 for several reasons. The main reason being I don't
desire moving parts, little wires and motors at 75 feet. We get plenty of
lightning during the summer here so it would only be a matter of time
before
something happened. Weather is the main reason I ruled out a quad also,
too
much freezing rain during the winter.
Secondly, the SteppIR is too expensive; I could stack 2 T-8's for about
the same price. Additionally, my operating style is one of jumping from
band to band, and I don't want to have to tune my antenna every time I
change bands, even if it takes a short amount of time. I think that would
get old rather quickly.
Like transceivers, all antennas have pros and cons, what works for me
might
not work for you. I just want an antenna I can put up and pretty much
forget about.
73 Buddy WB4M
--- Original Message -----
From: "Doug Turnbull" <turnbull@net1.ie>
To: "'Tower and HF antenna construction topics.'"
<towertalk@contesting.com>
Sent: Friday, January 22, 2010 4:39 AM
Subject: [TowerTalk] LP v SteppIR
> Gentlemen,
> I wonder what the attraction of the LP is when one can use a SteppIR.
> Am I wrong to believe that the Fwd gain and FB are better for a Yagi of
> the
> same number of elements tuned to the frequency of interest than an LP?
> Is
> it not the case that LP antennas have a lot of metal and hence wind
> loading
> for what they achieve? Wind loading is as important to me as gain and
> directivity. It is a big balancing act. Granted the SteppIR has a
good
> bit of electronics but in my experience they seem to be reliable.
> Perhaps
> the SteppIR is more expensive for the same performance but Aluminum is
> pretty dear.
>
> I am not trying to start a 'barney' but these are just my thoughts
and
> it may be that some one can correct me. I believe that SteppIR has
> changed
> the entire technology and past equations.
>
> 73 Doug EI2CN
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: towertalk-bounces@contesting.com
> [mailto:towertalk-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of
brahmangou@aol.com
> Sent: 22 January 2010 02:24
> To: towertalk@contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Single Tower, All Band Solution ?
>
> You need to take a look at the Tennadyne T-8 log periodic. I have 8
towers
> and have run most every antenna design at one time or another and it is
> one
> of my favorites. 5 bands, cw to ssb (try that with a trapped antenna),
> instant band switching, no matching network, light and really low cost.
> 73,
> AB5GU
> _______________________________________________
>
>
>
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