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Re: [TowerTalk] Please Help Me Decide on a Tribander or Monobanders

To: jim@audiosystemsgroup.com, wewill747@gmail.com, towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Please Help Me Decide on a Tribander or Monobanders
From: Grant Saviers <grants2@pacbell.net>
Date: Fri, 19 Apr 2013 10:02:59 -0700
List-post: <towertalk@contesting.com">mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
I went through the same ruminations with the 89' crank up I installed and decided the 4 el SteppIR w/o trombones was the way to go. It has a 32' boom which is bit longer than most of the multi-band competition and that helps as do 4 elements. Since I was going with a 40m Moxon on another tower the "bigger" wasn't better and I felt the trombones in general have to put more stress into everything about the SteppIR design.

I second Jim's observations - I regularly swap ends for quick 180 degree opposed DX or just to swing the rotator less. The bi-di feature is real fun when WA is open to JA and SA at the same time. Also the WARC band coverage is great and since many hams with tri-banders don't have these bands on a Yagi it is a killer in pileups. Then there is the wonder of QSY on any band and SWR is 1:1 (mine is Icom CI-V controlled). Some downsides are band change times ~ 10 sec and it is a mono-band antenna which doesn't work for SO2R or multi-multi.

I have the 6m option but have no real comparison, some have said a 6M5 or larger above will significantly outperform this option.

It's been up 1.7 years and no problems. Construction is solid and instructions are better now. My HDX-589 PE calcs for my wind exposure show the 4L uses most of the tower capacity so my only other antenna is a 2m on the 20' mast. SteppIR is 2' above top of tower. So having a 40m shorty above the SteppIR requires benign wind or nested storage when away or not watching the wind conditions.

Prior beams owned - TH7DX (3x Telex and Hygain), A4S, TA33 way back. The TH7 and A4 were fine performers, reliable and rugged, can't say that for the TA33 performance. MFJ "value engineering" keeps me away from what they are now selling.

One other suggestion is look into the effects of antenna aperture and what the free field space around each monobander is needed to achieve the gain and F/B. It convinced me that a mono stack needs much more spacing than can be achieved even on 15' of exposed mast.

Grant KZ1W


On 4/18/2013 2:41 PM, Jim Brown wrote:
On 4/18/2013 2:06 PM, Wayne Willenberg wrote:
I am now in ham nirvana because I have to start making up my mind on which antenna(s) to put on the 15’ mast. Here is my first dilemma. Should I put up a tribander (10, 15 and 20M) or 3 monobanders. My intuition said there
was no way a tribander with the same 20M boom length could beat 3
monobanders having a 20M antenna with the same boom length.

Your intuition is right on. :) There's another fine option to consider, it's in your price range, it offers the best of both worlds, AND it works just as well on the WARC bands and 6M. I'm talking about a SteppIR. I have the small 3-el (no trombones) with the added 6M element that covers 20M-6M. It's an optimized monobander on every band, 4-elements on 6M. It's also light enough that a strong guy on the tower can handle it by himself. And it's modular, so it can be built and tested on the ground, then you take off the elements, pull it up, and put it back together. That way you don't have to weave the elements through the guy wires as you bring it up.

You can, of course, go for one of the larger SteppIRs if your tower, your neighbors, and your budget allow it. I am VERY happy with mine. The DB-series antennas get you 40 and 30 with gain, but they're a LOT bigger and heavier, there's more to go wrong, and they are a lot more work to install. SteppIR is not great for customer service, you'll wait a while to get it, but they're very good antennas.

Another major advantage of the SteppIR Yagis is that you can reverse them in about 5 seconds, or set them bi-directional in that same time. That's VERY handy when the band is open to JA and South America at the same time (which often happens in Calfornia), or to EU and VK at the same time.

73, Jim K9YC

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