[TowerTalk] C31XR versus SteppIR

Mike Fatchett mike at mallardcove.com
Thu May 10 18:46:56 EDT 2007


Blow the balun on the F12 and you are out of action too.

The separate feedlines is an advantage if you need that kind of flexibility.
I have to wonder what all those extra elements do to the pattern.  What I do
know is the SteppIR just flat gets out.  Can they break sure.  Do they yep
and so does every other antenna out there.  Loose and element tip the
antenna should be coming down.  Yes you can still use the antenna but how
well? Rotors break in contests and rigs blow up too.  There are no
guarantees with electronics other then you if it is going to fail it will be
at the worst possible moment.  Murphy is really good at detecting that.  

Since the Computer blew up I guess you are back to paper logging?

The list of things that can go wrong is nearly limitless.

If SteppIR announces what we thing they are at Dayton.  You will have 3
shortened elements on 40/30 and 4 full sized elements for 20-6m.  4 elements
on 17m is a hoot when the band is open.  I was working 9V's the other day
early in the morning while hoping for the BS7 guys to show up on the band.
To be able to do that all in one antenna in a fairly small package is great.
One with multi elements on 40 in a much smaller package then the MonstIR
should be a big hit.  3 ele on 30m would be pretty fun too!

I have two 4ele SteppIRs and one in Montana is having some swr issues.
However I used a "broken" 4 ele SteppIR to grab 3rd place Multi in the 2005
SS phone contest.  Feel free to compare our 20m numbers with just about
anyone else and you will see that we stacked up very well against
competitors with much more aluminum in the sky.

Mike W0MU

    

-----Original Message-----
From: towertalk-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:towertalk-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of WD0M
Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2007 4:33 PM
To: towertalk at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] C31XR versus SteppIR

Dang - I've just realized that complexity is evil!  I'm gonna sell my C5
Corvette - I found out it has 5 computers in it at the least!  Progress
sucks.

73,

Joe
WDØM
(4L SteppIR owner for almost 4 years and that puppy has never "pooched".)


At 04:17 PM 5/10/2007, Peter Dougherty wrote:
>I originally wanted to go with a 4-element SteppIR for aesthetics, but 
>what convinced me ultimately had nothing to do with an antenna at all. 
>It was CQWW-SSB a few years ago. Saturday night, 40m; the band was on 
>fire and I had a good shot into Europe with 600W my dipole.
>All of a sudden my logging software froze, then the PC abruptly shut 
>off. It took me four hours to repair the log and get the PC up and 
>running again. Indeed, Mr. Murphy had come for a visit and brought all 
>his luggage with him.
>
>I see the idea of having that kind of circuitry and mechanical 
>complexity 70' up, where I can't service it myself, plus one extra 
>cable run, is engraved invitation for Mr. Murphy to come back for a 
>longer stay--of course, at the least opportune time.
>
>While I'm leery of the rivets giving way, from what I understand, if an 
>element or two fails at a rivet, the antenna will still be sort-of 
>usable, albeit with degraded performance. If a Stepper motor fails, the 
>control line fails or worst of all, the berrylium-copper tape breaks, 
>that's it...you're either QRT or stuck on one frequency (hope you 
>weren't listening to something on shortwave broadcast at 16 MHz at the 
>time it pooched out!).
>
>As Scotty said, the more complicated the plumbing, the easier it is to 
>stop up the drain."
>
>Besides, try to tri-feed a SteppIR!
>
>Cheers,
>
>Peter,
>W2IRT


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