In a message dated 09/14/2002 11:06:31 AM Central Daylight Time,
towertalk-request@contesting.com writes:
> Question for a SteppIR owner: where exactly is
> the DE placed on the boom?
I own one. It is not yet up, but the latest instruction book says:
Director - Driven = 89.5 "
Driven - Reflector = 102.5"
I think the SteppIR is a BIG step in the right direction. As far as tuning
goes, it is a no commpromise design. You can have a resonant antenna on any
band with good to excellent directivity and gain, with a modest weight and
windload, and minimum fuss puttting it up. This speaks volumes to all of us
with small portions of real estate.
The small improvement in F/B for a variable boom length would seem not
worthwhile to me. For the purist, I would opt for using a second SteppIR,
above the first, and use a different boom length. No interaction problem
(IMO) since you could set the unused one to 6m or higher.
I do plan to investigate using a 2nd 2EL unit with center loading coils on
40M. It should be tunable over the full band with the proper choice of coil.
I have yet to model it (too many Honey do's).
A variable boom length would be a real mechanical challenge compared to the
relative simplicity of the element tuning. (That said, the concept of two
rack & pinions, stacked and constrained in some manner......or maybe two
garage door tracks.....who knows???)
Bob, W5LT
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