[TowerTalk] Please Help Me Decide on a Tribander or Monobanders

[Grant Saviers]

I went through the same ruminations with the 89' crank up I installed 
and decided the  4 el SteppIR w/o trombones was the way to go.   It has 
a 32' boom which is bit longer than most of the multi-band competition 
and that helps as do 4 elements.  Since I was going with a 40m Moxon on 
another tower the "bigger" wasn't better and I felt the trombones in 
general have to put more stress into everything about the SteppIR design.

I second Jim's observations - I regularly swap ends for quick 180 degree 
opposed DX or just to swing the rotator less.  The bi-di feature is real 
fun when WA is open to JA and SA at the same time. Also the WARC band 
coverage is great and since many hams with tri-banders don't have these 
bands on a Yagi it is a killer in pileups.  Then there is the wonder of 
QSY on any band and SWR is 1:1 (mine is Icom CI-V controlled).  Some 
downsides are band change times ~ 10 sec and it is a mono-band antenna 
which doesn't work for SO2R or multi-multi.

I have the 6m option but have no real comparison, some have said a 6M5 
or larger above will significantly outperform this option.

It's been up 1.7 years and no problems.  Construction is solid and 
instructions are better now.  My HDX-589 PE calcs for my wind exposure 
show the 4L uses most of the tower capacity so my only other antenna is 
a 2m on the 20' mast.  SteppIR is 2' above top of tower.  So having a 
40m shorty above the SteppIR requires benign wind or nested storage when 
away or not watching the wind conditions.

Prior beams owned - TH7DX (3x Telex and Hygain), A4S, TA33 way back.  
The TH7 and A4 were fine performers, reliable and rugged, can't say that 
for the TA33 performance.  MFJ "value engineering" keeps me away from 
what they are now selling.

One other suggestion is look into the effects of antenna aperture and 
what the free field space around each monobander is needed to achieve 
the gain and F/B.  It convinced me that a mono stack needs much more 
spacing than can be achieved even on 15' of exposed mast.

Grant KZ1W


On 4/18/2013 2:41 PM, Jim Brown wrote:
> On 4/18/2013 2:06 PM, Wayne Willenberg wrote:
>> I am now in ham nirvana because I have to start making up my mind on 
>> which
>> antenna(s) to put on the 15’ mast.  Here is my first dilemma. Should 
>> I put
>> up a tribander (10, 15 and 20M) or 3 monobanders.  My intuition said 
>> there
>> was no way a tribander with the same 20M boom length could beat 3
>> monobanders having a 20M antenna with the same boom length.
>
> Your intuition is right on. :)  There's another fine option to 
> consider, it's in your price range, it offers the best of both worlds, 
> AND it works just as well on the WARC bands and 6M. I'm talking about 
> a SteppIR.  I have the small 3-el (no trombones) with the added 6M 
> element that covers 20M-6M. It's an optimized monobander on every 
> band, 4-elements on 6M. It's also light enough that a strong guy on 
> the tower can handle it by himself. And it's modular, so it can be 
> built and tested on the ground, then you take off the elements, pull 
> it up, and put it back together. That way you don't have to weave the 
> elements through the guy wires as you bring it up.
>
> You can, of course, go for one of the  larger SteppIRs if your tower, 
> your neighbors, and your budget allow it. I am VERY happy with mine. 
> The DB-series antennas get you 40 and 30 with gain, but they're a LOT 
> bigger and heavier, there's more to go wrong, and they are a lot more 
> work to install. SteppIR is not great for customer service, you'll 
> wait a while to get it, but they're very good antennas.
>
> Another major advantage of the SteppIR Yagis is that you can reverse 
> them in about 5 seconds, or set them bi-directional in that same time. 
> That's VERY handy when the band is open to JA and South America at the 
> same time (which often happens in Calfornia), or to EU and VK at the 
> same time.
>
> 73, Jim K9YC
>
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