[TowerTalk] C31XR versus SteppIR

[Stone, Gary R.]

Greetings,

I had been silent and won't say much but my Optibeam got sold.  The sale
cost me lots of lost dollars.  Mine was simply too big and needed some
better building in my view.  The new owner will probably be ok because
he is making some important (but not extensive) mods.  It was the big
OB17-4 and weighs 215 pounds.  The feed system needs some mods in my
view and perhaps a second support line (versus the single boom truss it
employs). The wind in my area caused the elements to rock back and forth
too much which caused some real issues with the feed system on 40
meters.  

I just found that 215 pounds is simply too much for my situation.  The
new owner plans to put it on a rotating tower and make some mods and
hopefully that will do the trick.  So, for me (and me only) the
"Optibeam experience" cost me a ton of money and frustration.  I went
back to Cushcraft and just worked the BS7H so I am happy :-)

Now if I have a problem with this Cushcraft Log (ASL2010) beam (10 sq.
feet and 55 pounds) I can handle it without renting a crane!  That
brings me some relief.  NOTE: Using the OB17-4 with 3 elements on 40
meters was a real treat...most of the time.  It was just not practical
(for me) to put up something that required a crane for any work on it
other than a few feet out from the center of the tower.)

I am very curiously following the progress of the SteppIR antennas -
especially how do they hold up for years of activity?  

Gary Stone, BA, LCDC  J


-----Original Message-----
From: towertalk-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:towertalk-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of bob finger
Sent: Friday, May 11, 2007 2:24 PM
To: Hector Garcia XE2K
Cc: towertalk at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] C31XR versus SteppIR

Hector:  Perhaps not, but those of us who have them think the world of 
OptiBeam.  Better it be kept a secret though....I don't want all the 
competition.  I own 6 OptiBeam antennas and while very expensive there 
appear to be none better.  It is also hard to get better support than we

do from Tom DF2BO, even with the big pond in between.  73 bob de w9ge

Hector Garcia XE2K wrote:

>my opinion:
>America is not the Optibeam's market 
>
>  
>
>  
>
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