[Elecraft] Connecting a BigIR

[dick at lazyh.me]

Andy ...

I can't speak to Kenwood interfacing, but I can report that my BigIR
flawlessly follows my K4 as I tune.
My SDA100 is sn12753, which I acquired along with the BigIR in August of
2022.
My connection is the simple RS232 to RS232 cable, controller to radio.

73
Dick, K5AND

-----Original Message-----
From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net <elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net> On
Behalf Of Andy Durbin
Sent: Saturday, March 15, 2025 8:36 AM
To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Elecraft] Connecting a BigIR

"My question is exactly where to connect the SteppIR control box to the
radio."

The simple answer is do not connect that way.  The direct SteppIR interface
with a Kenwood/Elecraft rig is very poorly implemented and may cause the
SteppIR to tune at beginning and end of transmission.

Far better to use a separate application or hardware interface that sends
the SteppIR controller only the TX frequency.  I have been using
PstRotatorAz for many years.  Others have used DXLab Commander secondary
port.

My experience is with a 2 element SteppIR but the tune on TX problem will be
just the same with a BigIR.  I wrote a paper on this issue about 10 years
ago but, to the best of my knowledge, SteppIR did not fix it in any later
controller versions or models.

https://tinyurl.com/m9ms6jh8

Andy, k3wyc
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