[TowerTalk] small antennas

[NØATH]

Jon - I was just wondering - I have never had or even been 
close to a steppir
but from what I have read and surmised there must be a bit 
of fiberglass on
the steppir or so it seems to me - If this is true isn't 
that a possible source of
your noise - I don't mean to say that all fiberglass is 
necessarily noisy but I
have seen instances ( I have never been a round a hurricane 
either ) where
the fiberglass antenna picked up the atmospheric noise 
trifold to an all
aluminum antenna. Case in point, I removed a Phelps Dodge 
Station Master
and replaced it with a DB Products antenna on our local 
repeater on 2 meters
some time back The Phelps Dodge would always let you know 
when the first few
raindrops were starting to hit it. You could actually hear 
every one if the
repeater transmitter was on. With the entire metal antenna 
that noise was
immediately gone. Maybe I am the one who is all wet, as I 
said, I have never
been close to a steppir but had presumed there was quite a 
bit of fiberglass on it.
Just a thought / Dave


Thanks for the clarification, Joe.  As to the comment I made 
about the
SteppIR being noisier on 20 compared to the A4S, I really 
have no
explanation for it.  The reverse should be true, and I first 
put it down to
the notion that the SteppIR was a "hotter" antenna and the 
lower noise level
on the A4S was because it was more lossy, but the signal 
levels on both
antennas with a switched A/B test are virtually the same, 
the only
difference is in the background noise level.  Often I will 
switch to one the
A4S's to copy a station that is in the noise.  I've 
discussed this with Mike
at SteppIR and he says the SteppIR should have a better 
signal to noise, but
it clearly doesn't here at my QTH.  All the tribanders are 
fed with 9913
which I replace every two years and the runs are quite short 
because my
shack is on the 3d floor of my house and two of the yagis 
are roof mounted
above me.  The SteppIR is on the bottom of the mast with a 
Cushcraft 402CD
about 14' above it.  The A4S is about 8 lower than the 
SteppIR on the other
corner of the roof.  The 3d A4S is up for some contests on a 
50' Heights
tower about halfway to  the sea shore.  I'm about set back 
from the Gulf
about 300'.  I really never noticed the noise until the 
hurricanes in the
last three years stirred up the power lines etc throughout 
Florida.  I was
blessed for many years with an extremely quiet QTH here on 
the island.