[TowerTalk] Antenna modeling

[R. Kevin Stover]

Hello all.

I'm planning a tower install this next spring and am getting deep into 
the planning and a have a few questions.

#1. How do you model commercial antennas without the dimensions of said 
antenna?
      I'd like to be able to model the antenna before buying it

#2. How do you model something like a Cushcraft X7 with the log feed 
section?

#3. When modeling an antenna with traps how do you know what values to 
plug in as loads for the traps?
      
I was planning on 4el SteppIR and an XM240 on a 70ft AN Wireless tower 
then I got to thinking about feeding the tower for 160m and using the 
beams for toploading. That won't work too well if the dimmensions and 
thus toploading provided by the SteppIR change all of the time so I'm 
now looking for traditional beam designs. Since Cushcraft is the only 
manufacturer to my knowlege that provides manuals for the products 
online, and I can use those dimensions to get an idea of how the system 
will perform, they've moved to the head of the pack.

Thanks for your input and advice.
      .

-- 
R. Kevin Stover, ACØH