[TowerTalk] LP v SteppIR

[john at kk9a.com]

I have heard of a number of motor failures so I wonder how common this 
problem is.  I suspect only the manufacturer knows this answer.  If the 
antenna is mounted on a crankup tower repairing it may be somewhat easy, 
however if it is mounted 100 to 200 feet high with other antennas on the 
tower or  in an H-frame like K9LTN's problematic phased array, repairing the 
antenna can be a lot of work and expense.  It is true that any antenna can 
break and in choosing a product one should consider which one is built 
stronger and less susceptible to failure, along with comparing the 
electrical performance.




To: "Tower and HF antenna construction topics." <towertalk at contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] LP v SteppIR
From: jimlux <jimlux at earthlink.net>
Reply-to: "Tower and HF antenna construction topics." 
<towertalk at contesting.com>
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 2010 07:08:03 -0800
List-post: <towertalk at contesting.com">mailto:towertalk at contesting.com>

<snip>

There are complaints of motor/mechanism failures, but they're fairly
infrequent, and, to be fair, you hear complaints about conventional
antennas with broken traps, incorrect hardware, etc.  And, because
they're new and novel, the "reporting rate" on SteppIR problems is
higher than for conventional antennas (e.g. you're more likely to find
an online comment about a SteppIR problem than about a missing set of
clamps in some other antenna)