[TowerTalk] Quad vs SteppIR

[Bill Ogden]

I took down my 40' Aluminum tower and Cubex 5-band quad (separate feeds for
each band) over a year ago before moving away for a year. The quad was a
wonderful antenna, especially good for listening.  Full coverage on all
bands without any adjustments.

I now have a 55' crankup tower in place and an getting ready to put the
quad up again.  (I have new element wires for it.  Recovering the existing
element wires became too messy.)  I am not quite as young as I used to be
and am not a good climber --- this prompted the switch to the crankup.
Working the crank is a little more exercise than I expected but that might
be a good thing.

The downside for a quad is the mechanical handling.  The three dimensional
structure is awkward to deal with until it is in place on a mast -- it is
also difficult in a crankover situation.  The separate feeds for each band
optimizes the antenna operation but the feeds are a little messy between
the 5-way relay (mounted on the boom of the quad) and the feed points.

I am wondering if a 3 element SteppIR would provide any noticable
improvements in my situation.  The SteppIR is probably easier to handle and
the 180 degree switch appears to be a very nice feature, but is this
sufficient to justify switching?  Does anyone have experiences about quad
vs SteppIR?

Bill
W2WO