[TowerTalk] Quads, SteppIRs, towers, etc..

[kg6i at direcway.com]

----- Original Message -----
From: Fred Spinner <fred.spinner at gmail.com>
Date: Wednesday, September 1, 2004 8:36 am
Subject: [TowerTalk] Quads, SteppIRs, towers, etc..

> Ok, hopefully I won't spam the list from here like I did yesterday!
> 
> I've been lurking here for awhile, and I do have to admit the
> discussions in the last few months have been very appropos to my
> current project.  After 19 years of being licensed, I'm finally going
> to put up my first tower.  I'm in a pretty windy area, and on a
> limited budget, so I'm being conservative and putting up 70' of Rohn
> 25G. (Max height with 2 guys).. I've finally won a 3 week long battle
> with the county Planning & Zoning (and I live literally in the middle
> of nowhere on 35.63 Acres..[Beverages!]..sigh...), so I'm getting
> excited...
> 
> I'm intersted in knowing if the comparisons of the quad vs the SteppIR
> was comparing a 2 ele Quad with the three ele SteppIR?  From a
> strictly academic point of view, since the SteppIR retunes in a fairly
> High-Q state on each frequency it would seem that F/B would be better
> than a quad, especially over an entire band.  Gain should be
> marginally better with 3-ele vs 2.
> 
> I ask this because I really wanted to buy a SteppIR-- I was and am
> still fascinated by the design.  And like just about everyone with
> their first tower, I grossly underestimated the cost of the hardware
> to put it up.  So yeah, it's costing me $1200 to put up $200 with of
> used 25G in good shape.  Probably not a suprise to many here.
> 
> That killed me being able to get the SteppIR.  The Quad was cheap,
> even though I added 6m and had it built on a 3" boom it was well less
> than $400 new from Lightning Bolt.  This and it's easy multiband
> ability and realtively low windloading (on the 2-ele!) seemed like a
> good compromise for a first setup.
> 
> I don't like the single feed system Mike uses, but then again it hurts
> 12m and 10m the most, and until the cycle come up, should I care? 
> Modeling the antenna on NEC-2 on 10m doesn't look too good as it is.
> 
> Is the performance of the SteppIR worth the 4-5x price 
> differential? 
> I guess for serious contesters or DXers a dB or two is a big deal, but
> I'm a very casual operator, with much less time for ham radio than I'd
> like.
> 
> If so, I'll start saving for one to purchase in 2-3 years...
> 
> I'd also like to know how the guys with the quads here have raised the
> quad onto a guyed tower?  Would a tram line w/a temporary mast
> extension work okay for this, or should I plan on a crane or bucket
> truck?
> 
> Oh, what do you guys think of Half Squares for the low bands?  (I have
> a nice tree 200' away from the tower due SW..)  Would there be too
> much interaction using a tower as one support end?
> 
> I've got more to ask, but I'll save it for later! (!)
> 
> Fred Spinner, W0FMS
> EN42eg 20mi N of Cedar Rapids, IA
My advise..buy the SteppIR, you won't regtret it. And I like my 4L version much better than the 3L, which I first bot.
John