[SJDXA] Steppir issues

[Jeff KB2M]

 I finally got over my late winter cold, that started right around the 160m
SSB contest and then turned into Phenomena. I at the same time lost my 4L
Steppir. After almost two months yesterday, With the help of Ray Wb2jjo I
finally got the antenna on the ground. It was ugly, See pictures. When I
opened the EHU a large amount of water drained out. It dawned on me what had
happened. The EHU had filled up with water which had froze locking the
elements somewhere between 20 and 17 meters. I've had the 4L for almost 10
years, the 30/40m driven element add on kit that failed,  was added only 3
years ago. I did notice that the new EHU has some design changes, most
notably a screened in drain hole on the bottom. Got the antenna back up in
the air before dark and proceeded to work some DX. Boy is it good to once
again get 'nice signal' reports from the DX. I've been mostly staying at my
winter QTH in Turnersville where I have a trapped fan dipole up with 100
watts. I started a new log there and have 82 countries already. But it sure
is nice to once again be the first one to work the DX contact and not the
last :-)
 Lesson learned. Don't forget to retract your Steppir's elements, especially
if you're not going to use the antenna for awhile. The water in the EHU, I'm
sure isn't a good thing but it didn't seem to hurt the antennas performance
until it froze. 
 I hope this is my last winter up here......

73 Jeff kb2m

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