OK, I'll say it.
It's no fun for me to put that much "stuff" and money (StepIR) up in the
air.
Yes, I could "afford" one, but my ham fun leans much more to getting good
results from less than stellar equipment. If you can afford it, want it,
and can afford the repairs, by all means go for it. But I think a little
more tower is much more appealing. I suppose I have some prejudice against
"buying performance", where my own hamming is concerned. The only beam I
have owned was a used trap tribander at 35 feet. It did anything I asked of
it, mostly at 100W! If it weren't for WARC, I'd do that again in a
heartbeat, but the great conditions and lack of crowding on some WARC
frequencies has me looking at log periodics. Friends extoll the eleven
element, but I'm not sure I want to mess with the size, so may go down to
six, which many reviewers praise. I suppose my ambition is flagging with
advancing age (68), even though I'm perfectly able to climb.
73,
Wilson
W4BOH
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 22 Jan 2010 11:21:02 -0500
> From: "Gene Fuller" <w2lu@rochester.rr.com>
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] LP v SteppIR
> To: "Tower and HF antenna construction topics."
> <towertalk@contesting.com>
> Message-ID: <006801ca9b7e$e45cc4f0$6701a8c0@FamilyRoom>
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
> reply-type=original
>
> It all boils down to the old adage "different stroke for different folks".
> How many bands, zoning restrictions especially re height, dollars, wind
> and
> ice conditions, reliability, avalability of local bargins, asthetics,
> contests vs just x'ing, cost and reliability of cabling - RF, power and
> control, and rotators, ability/willingness to climb, etc. But remember
> that
> for the average location, you will most likely pick up more db's and new
> "countries" by putting a fairly simple lower gain (4-6 db) antenna at 70
> feet than going to a fancier higher gain (8-10 db) at 35 feet - if zoning
> will allow it. There certainly are enough options available. And, as
> someone, porbably wiser than most of us blogers once said, in effect,
> "It's
> most important to just make a reasoned decision and get on with it.
> You'll
> miss more dx with all of the interminal procrastination than you will by
> lacking a few db's from your antenna.
>
>
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