[TowerTalk] Comparison of SteppIR and Cushcraft Log

[Jim Jarvis]

Having had a Cushcraft ASL20-10 log, and a Tennadyne T8 log,
AND a 3 el SteppIR, AND a kt34A,  I can say the following 
from personal experience:

1)  The steppIR is the best of the bunch, by a significant
margin.  Several reasons.

2)  While I liked the logs for general use, they admitted
significant 60 over 9+ short wave broadcast signals which
heavily loaded the front end of my rigs.  You can't filter
this stuff out.  Things got very quiet when I went to the SteppIR.
Scrunchy, funky band noises just weren't there....which I 
attribute to TOI.  (take a look above 21450 some time!)

3)  F/B, F/S, Gain are better on the 3 el steppIR.  The logs
are basically 2 el beams on any given band.  

4)  Assembly is significantly quicker with the SteppIR,
	perhaps a half day or more less.  (2 hours from box to tower,
	as compared to a full day of assembly for either lpda)

5)  SteppIR has less wind load, is cleaner looking.

6) weight-wise, it's probably a wash.  

7) If you wanted to try an lpda, I'd go with Tennadyne over CC;
	far fewer bolted connections to get lossy over time. 

8) Tennadyne T8 is probably half the price of the SteppIR, and it
IS simple.  

9)  Remember that the logs are basically a 2 el beam on any given
band.  If you compare them against a 2 el SteppIR, the price delta
is less significant, and performance would be about equal.  

10)  In contests, with rig, amp and antenna automatically changing bands, 
	I never needed more than maybe 3 seconds for the antenna to tune.
	Just about enough time for a sip of coffee...and a quick look	
	at the bandmap.  Never felt like a constraint.

	If your amp isn't auto-tune, you'll find the tuned antenna will make
	preset-amp-tuning much more reliable. (or filecards on the knobs)

Even for general hacking around, my choice would be a 3el SteppIR, 
followed by a Tennadyne t8 or t10.  Wouldn't have another ASL2010, based
on their feed system.  kt34a won't give you warc.  

n2ea