[Elecraft] SteppIr

[J F]

Hi John,
The SteppIr housings are fiberglass and can be
purchased seperately. (I picked someones spare up to
play with at some point). They had a nice booth at
Dayton where you could see the internal parts in
action. It's a great idea for someone who wants an
"all in one" neat package. I bought one of the yagis
for that reason, and from all the positive comments
made in the contest and DX circles.

As to radials, you can get away with a lot less length
if you bury your radials just under the surface. Some
efficiency is sacrificed, but even over poor soil
(alas Tennessee falls into this category according to
all the charts) you will get decent performance. My
experience is with 80/160 and some 40M vertical work.
On 80M, I used a 48' top loaded Tee wire vertical with
twelve 30' radials just on top of the ground. Managed
90 countries in CQ WW CW with 100 watts, so don't let
the 120 1/2 wave radial thing throw you for a loop...

Cheers,
Julius
n2wn