[Elecraft] [OT] SteppIR antenna summary

[Bill Frantz]

The responses about SteppIR antennas have died down so here is, 
as promised, the summary.

Five people reported no problems with a total of 39 years of 
experience. An additional responder had no problems, but did not 
give the length of his experience. One of these responders is 
near the ocean.

Another responder lives in coastal New England where he 
experiences high winds, but reports no weather related damage. 
He has not had a major ice storm, but did have damage from a 
lightning strike.

Three people report failures in the EHU (the device that moves 
the extensible antenna element), including one "out of the box", 
two due to lightning strikes, and one due to an hour of 120 MPH 
winds. Another reports having to lower the antenna 4 times since 
2004 for unspecified repairs.

Several people point out that SteppIR has made significant 
improvements over the last 15 years, fixing some of the problems 
that caused early failures. One said that he had fewer problems 
with his 13 year old SteppIR than he had had with a Butternut vertical.

Many say they get performance similar to what they would get 
with a bunch of monoband Yagis. Some sing the praises of 
crank-up/tilt-over towers to make antenna access easy.


My take on all this is that the SteppIR antennas are significant 
mechanical devices, much more complex than multi and 
monobanders. Since any antenna can fail, there should be a 
repair plan for antennas. Given the time I've spent repairing my 
wire antennas, SteppIRs don't seem to be particularly unreliable.

73 Bill AE6JV

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