[TowerTalk] SteppIR

[David]

Several years ago I had a finely-crafted aluminum 11 element antenna (made in Germany) that was supposed to survive 100mph winds.  I’m in southeast Florida, about two miles from the coast.  In 2004, after hurricane Frances blew through my area, I stepped outside to find trees, fence, and pool enclosure destroyed and most of the shingles ripped from my house.  I looked up at my antenna (that was cranked down to 25 feet on the HDX-555 tower) and it looked like a pretzel.  The recorded wind on my Vantage Pro anemometer hit a max of 87 mph gusts at my QTH.  I have an HDX-555 crankup tower with fold-over and although I could have cranked the tower over and removed all eleven elements as the storm approached, it seemed like to much trouble at the time.   ;-)   A few weeks later we were directly hit by hurricane Jeanne.  Fun times in Florida.

After the 2004 hurricane season ended for the year, I replaced the mangled antenna with a new 4 ele SteppIR.  The next year, hurricane Wilma headed for us and I this time I lowered the antenna, easily removed the four elements, leaving just the boom, and raised it back up.  Wilma destroyed our fence again, and a couple of trees, but the Steppir boom was fine.  I folded over the tower and put the fiberglass elements back on - easy because they’re only held on by 8 hose clamps with rubber boots.

Since then, the only maintenance I’ve done to the 4 ele SteppIR is recoating the fiberglass tubes with a high-quality epoxy paint a couple years ago.   Florida sun does take a toll on anything made of fiberglass.  It’s really an amazing antenna and I would definitely buy another one.   Praying for no more hurricanes though.

David, K4ZZR