[TowerTalk] New antenna system

[Jerry Keller]

Morel... we all know SWR is not the whole story. I will let others debate with you about the 
SteppIR's F/Band F/B ratios and gain figures in comparison with other antennas, as I am not all that 
well qualified to discuss such matters.

As concerns reliability and life expectancy of components, Fluidmotion has test-cycled the SteppIR 
mechanisms literally millions of times without failure. If you will search the archives of more than 
4000 postings over the past 2-1/2 years of the SteppIR YahooGroup 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SteppIR/
you will find that over 600 users have described perhaps a dozen or two instances of problems, most 
of which were eventually attributed to causes other than the SteppIR antenna itself. And solutions 
to the few "actual" problems were quickly found and just as quickly resolved by Fluidmotion's 
amazingly responsive customer service. I know of no other manufacturer of antennas anywhere in the 
world that has the record of customer satisfaction and responsiveness to custmer needs that the 
folks at Fluidmotion have earned. If there has been one downside, it's that there have been so many 
orders that it takes a while to get one of these magnificent antennas. But, as always, anything 
worth having is worth waiting for!!

So, Morel, I will challenge you... you have my opinion, and I can point to the huge worldwide 
response to the SteppIR and the nearly universal satisfaction of SteppIR users worldwide as my 
evidence. Perhaps you can name me another "antenna design development since the invention of the 
yagi" that shows more promise for great all-around performance than the SteppIR concept? I don't 
think so....

73, my friend, and good DX..... Jerry K3BZ

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "4x1ad" <4x1ad at iarc.org>
To: "Jerry Keller" <k3bz at arrl.net>; "TowerTalk" <towertalk at contesting.com>
Sent: Monday, November 08, 2004 2:05 PM
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] New antenna system


> Jerry,
>
> IMHO, your statement that "SteppIR concept is the most important antenna
> design development since the invention of the yagi itself", it's real only
> if your life ideal it's a low SWR antenna.  But what about F/B or F/S ratio
> ?  Aren't they of any importance ? I have also mixed feeling about the
> reliability of the copper-berillium perforated strip or the life expectancy
> of the modest contacts.
>
> Personally, I can't take too seriously the manufacturer claim that "a long
> boom is not needed to achieve near optimum gain and front to back ratios on
> 20 - 10 meters since the SteppIR can control the element lengths" !!!!
>
>
> 73
> Morel
> 4X1AD
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Jerry Keller" <k3bz at arrl.net>
> To: "TowerTalk" <towertalk at contesting.com>
> Sent: Monday, November 08, 2004 8:13 PM
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] New antenna system
>
>
>> Rob, that 1 hour response from the folks at SteppIR is pretty typical of
> the kind of customer
>> service they provide. You will never regret your decision to go with a
> SteppIR yagi, I've had mine
>> up a year and it is truly the best performing antenna I've ever had in 40+
> years of hamming. I was a
>> little skeptical at first, especially looking at the price tag, but
> serious HF antennas from Force
>> 12 and others cost big bucks too. After considering all the rest I
> concluded that all the other
>> multi-band yagis have to compromise to some extent... they may have a
> dozen or more elements, but
>> still only 2 or 3 on each band...whereas the SteppIR actually gives you a
> 3 element monobander on
>> each of those bands, tunable even within a band, PLUS you can hook it up
> to your radio so it will
>> follow along seamlessly as you tune around or change bands. I think the
> SteppIR concept is the most
>> important antenna design development since the invention of the yagi
> itself, and I have lots of
>> company... check out (and join) the SteppIR YahooGroup at
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SteppIR/
>> and you'll find a great bunch (over 600 happy users and growing) who will
> be happy to answer your
>> questions and share info on the SteppIR antennas.
>> 73,  Jerry K3BZ
>
>