Maybe I shouldn't have prefaced my question with that remark, but it seems
many of the good discussions deteriorate into more than simply good natured
disagreements lately.
Over the years I have had many antennas, some commercial and some HB. It
seems that some brands or antennas get a following that have an almost
"religious fervor". A good example is the old Telrex antennas. When I first
got on, if you didn't have a Telrex, you didn't have a real antenna. KLM and
later Force 12 both seemed to have this kind of a following. With the
exception of Telrex, I have owned and used almost all of these antennas
including the Hygain monobanders. They all seemed to work. I am sure that
the SteppIR works fine, as well. In fact, I have been drooling over the big
StepperIR that includes 40.
I think the point I was trying to make was... if a well designed yagi with 4
elements works as well as a well designed 5, 6 ... element yagi, then why
would anyone want to purchase, buy, or build the larger antenna?
A few years back I was using 5 element Hygain antennas on 10, and 15. I took
them down because they seemed like poor performers and the elements kept
breaking in our constant light breeze. (Yes, I put the rope in the
elements)I decided that they weren't big enough so I bought the 6 element
KLMs for 10 and 15. The 10 seemed average and the 15 was a real performer,
but I had rotator problems with these two antennas being stacked on the same
tower.
I finally decided that I wasn't going to be able to afford an antenna in
south Texas that would allow me to run Europeans like KC1XX, so I downsized
and bought a Force 12 C3. It took me 1.5 hours to construct this antenna and
I could hold it up in one hand! This didn't look like something that I was
going to be happy with, but it seemed to play real nice. The elements stayed
on the antenna, it had a good SWR, and it consistently had a better signal
than my friend's KT34XA. It is nice and light and doesn't break my Ham M
rotator.
I was impressed by the remark that Tom made. He said, "What I see time and
time again is something that is unimportant or poorly defined or accurately
measured becomes the focus of building, buying, or selling." This is coming
from a fellow that is constantly preaching to us about the use of empirical
data. Often differences between measurements become insignificant because of
the large variety of construction and installation techniques. Frankly, many
of the differences that we perceive are in the eye of the beholder. Roger
was right when he said, "those of us that own a SteppIR KNOW the value of
the antenna. We need to stop trying to convince all of these ..."
Convincing these guys is the job of an antenna salesman.
Is my little C3 as good antenna as the four element SteppIR? No. Is the
SteppIR the second coming? Probably not. Whether I beat you in the next
pileup might depend on more than just the parts than come in that antenna
box.
Adios,
Bill, W5VX
>-----Original Message-----
>From: towertalk-bounces@contesting.com [mailto:towertalk-
>bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Dan Levin
>Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2005 12:57 AM
>To: towertalk@contesting.com
>Subject: [TowerTalk] How can a SteppIR Perform So Well?
>
>W5VX wrote:
>
>>I'm not trying to pick a fight and I know that I am going to regret asking
>t>his question but...
>
>A rational discussion about interesting antenna issues is the point of this
>reflector, isn't it? A bit of honest disagreement is a feature, not a bug.
>
>>How can a 4 element multiband yagi with a compromised boom length deliver
>>gain approximating that of a well designed 5 element monobander?
>
>I think the answer basically boils down to this: boom length is a key
>contributor to gain.
>
>The SteppIR design removes the constraint to solve for "acceptable"
>bandwidth. This allows the antenna to be configured for "optimal" gain at
>a
>given frequency with a fixed feed impedance of 22 ohms. It turns out that
>if you get to optimize the elements for gain absent a requirement for
>bandwidth, and you have four elements on a 32 foot boom, you get pretty
>close to the optimal amount of gain possible from a 32 foot boom.
>
>The SteppIR also doesn't try to deliver excellent F/B. The removal of this
>constraint also improves its ability to deliver gain. Since I don't care
>about F/B, this isn't an issue for me.
>
>The "big" monobanders that I studied on 10 and 15 meters have booms of 32
>feet or less, and they have to solve for bandwidth in addition to other
>factors, so they can't get much better gain than the SteppIR on its 32 foot
>boom. If you removed the constraints of bandwidth and F/B, you could do
>better with 5 elements spaced as you please than the SteppIR can with 4
>fixed elements, but with those constraints in place, you pretty much can't.
>
>On 20 meters, where the "big" antennae have 48 foot booms, the SteppIR
>can't
>compete. But it isn't the lack of elements, it is mostly the lack of boom
>length.
>
> ***dan, K6IF
>
>_______________________________________________
>
>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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_______________________________________________
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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