[TowerTalk] SteppIR problem-update from the front lines

[john at kk9a.com]

Can you move your house closer to the tower and shorten the cable run?

73,
John KK9A


To: towertalk at contesting.com
Subject: [TowerTalk] SteppIR problem-update from the front lines
From: Bill Carnett 
Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2007 15:32:54 -0700 (PDT)
List-post: <mailto:towertalk at contesting.com>

Ok, Friday I received a new 440 foot control cable
from Mike at SteppIR.  In addition he prepared a 6
volt DC battery pack to piggy-back on the 33 volt
power supply for the controller.

Neither worked.  Unit comes on, then shuts off with
band selection.  Even tried going into set-up mode to
individually select elements, same problem.  Make the
selection, and the entire unit shuts down.  With a
short control cable, i.e. 80 foot at the base of the
tower, the unit works fine...full functioning.

So, anybody have other suggestions?  The problem seems
to be related to the cable length.  Increasing the
controller voltage to the maximum 38 doesn't help.
The SteppIR folks, Jerry, Jim, and Mike have been
great, but we still can't figure out the problem.

This is pretty frustrating.  I want to give this
antenna a good opportunity to get functional, but I'm
not sure it will in my application, i.e. 500 feet from
controller to antenna.  It might be time to start
looking for an alternative antenna?

Again, thanks to all and any suggestions appreciated.

73, Bill
AH6FC/7