[TowerTalk] SteppIR Wind Damage

[VR2BrettGraham]

K4MQG further reported:

>For your info, attached are three pictures showing wind damage to a friends
>SteppIR antenna in Europe. He said the wind peak was 73 MPH and stayed
>between 60-70 MPH for three hours. Fortunately he lost only one half of one
>element. He said the fiberglass support tube snapped where the tape ends.

If this is an older SteppIR & therefore came with
the original tubes, something to remember...

Apparently the dielectric constant of later tubes
is different than previous ones.

Mixing old & new tubes is something I am not sure
how to accommodate with the controller.  If only
change one tube for a new one, guess it is best that
it is used on the driver, as can easily find/fudge how
far to extend the strips.

Likewise a whole element - better to put the new
tubes on the driver than a parasitic element.

What to do if >1 element has new tubes & the
rest are old, I dunno.

My dipole has broken the element housing
instead of the tubes with winds not to different
than reported above.  Not sure which I would
prefer to sacrifice.  ;^)

73, VR2BrettGraham