july 29, it is me, verry happy with my new SteppIR antenna

Perfect separately packed.

Well done!

On the front you can see the "fishing poles". Those poles must be the elements, 11meters long each.

August 11, building up the antenna. John and I mounted the "boom mast clamb" on the boom.

Here you could see how we fix the boom on the top-tower. You also see the 3 aluminium mounting brackets for the 3 element stepper motors.

These are the three casings including the stepper motor, within the real antenna.

The black cable you see isn't coax cable but the 12 conductor cable to connect the elements with the control box.

Here you could see how I made the first stepper motor on the boom.

We can fix the poles later easily on these stepper motors. Just putting them into the rubber boots, tighten the clamps and finished.

John must make the second on the boom.

These stepper motors are fixed with about 12 Stainless Steel M6 screws each.

This will be harmfull when using stainless steel. Too tighten will damage the screw. That is what you see here!

All twelve tires connected on the right way on the cable. If you do not so, you get some strange effects with the SWR and F/B results.

The last inspection, looking if everything is ok, before lifting the tower.

Antenna poles, also to use for fishing hihi.

(I didn't catch anything)

Tower again verticale with his new beam, just with 2 elements. We must place the third element now, but that's easy.

Now you can see the results of our work. With any distance you could not see al these works..

Also the big casings are just small things

Constructive:

Everything was very good packed, separate and with a clear user manual.
The factory just used first class material, and first class aluminium boom, divided in 4 parts, complete with all stainless steel nuts, bolts and washers.
The complete boom and all his components are pre-drilled, so it is impossible to make any mistake when mounting.

The element, (fishing poles) had a point of interest, because some off them were too short. The minimum length must be 538cm, but some of them reach just 534cm, so 4 cm too short!
With sanding and some work with a hobby knive I could make them a little longer.

All the antenna components are made to build easily, with just a handful of tools. Most time of the work is taping the poles in the right way.
But now I can assemble the second antenna into 3 or 4 ours.

The packing is included a clear instruction and user manual.

The control box who is a part off the antenna is a box with dimensions from approximately 18cm(l) x6cm(h) x 12cm(t). When you are looking to the information on the SteppIR site, you want to believe the dimensions are much bigger but in real the box turns out better than expected.

The connections to the control box with the in my case 12 conductor cable will be connected with a 25 pinDsub connector. Then you can put the controller on directly.
At once you can see that the control leds are very violent lighted. Perhaps you can read a book in the dark by led-light!
I think it is a little irritating in the evening when it is dark in the shack.

On the other hand using the control box is very simple. The software is easily to handle, just by pushing two or three buttons. Programming is not direct necessary, unless you want different values into your program.

I didn’t buy it my selves, but very nice and handful is a interface you could built in the controller, and if your transceiver have a 9 pin D sub connector with computer interfacing capability, the antenna will be automatically re-adjust every 50 Khz, and also follow the band switching off your transceiver. Everything goes automatically….how nice!

The display is good lighted and good readable, English of course!

Now I have two days of experience with my new antenna behind me, I persuaded that it is an antenna with very good properties. When I compare the SteppIR and the Fritzell the SteppIR leaves the Fritzell far behind. I know that I must compare in just the same conditions, but when I‘m looking to the rx/tx reports there is a big difference between these two antennas. It’s impossible to compare with just the same conditions and situations.

The f/b gain is much better, and also the forward gain is better as the Fritzell.
I worked all ready some stations and often I get a nice report in the short time I use this antenna.

The most fantastic issue of this antenna is the fact you can turn the forward gain in less as 3 seconds 180 degrees without turning the antenna by rotor. Its works great!

Also you can set the antenna “bi-directional”. In that case the antenna “looks” into two directions, turned by 180 degrees. The antenna change into a antenna with 1 driven and 2 passive elements. Nice, no more.

VSWR on all bands 10m – 20m less as 1:1.3. If you want, you can make the VSWR a little better. With the control box it is possible to re-adjust the driven element a little longer or shorter, +/- 5%.

Shortly, I can say in the time I use the antenna now, it seems to be a very nice one, with just positive experiences. If it is necessary in the future to tell more about, I will do so, negative and positive as well.

Winter problems with the SteppIR.

November 23, 2008.

This day the first snow fals. Before, we had a rainy period with temperature of zero Degrees C. What a shock on that moment. I didn’t use my antenna for a few days, and days before we had a serious storm. When I made a transmission on 20mtr I saw the very bad VSWR information on my antenna analyser. To hi…>1:3. Very strange when you know that the hole antenna is packed in a fiberglas pole and housing. There is no any influence with bad weather, snow and ice, so told the commercial description.
A fairytale.. Ice and snow is a serious problem for the SteppIR antenna. Using a good antenna tuner you can solve the problem.
One day later , when snow and ice were disappeared, temperature above zero degrees, the problem solved it selves. VSWR 1:1.2 over the whole range again!

Any reactions, possitive or negative, any suggestion, please let me know. You can make your note to my Email adress or just into my guestbook in the previous page.

After 2 years usage, it was necessary to maintenance the tower and its antenna’s, specially the steppIR antenna.

When removed the steppIR pole’s the first thing I noticed, the those poles were not green anymore at the upper side. Rain, wind and the sun (uv) has collored the upper-side like more violet. Cleaning with Turtle Wax “dry touch trim care” make the poles like new ones. Also gives these wax a UV protection shield.

The steppIR motor houses look like new ones. I think the used material is a sort of fiberglass or polycarbonate. Now, after 2 years they looks the same, no dust or color change on the housing by sunlight.
Also the rubber boots looks like new ones. I’ve tried too tighten the clamp a little bit more because the 2 years, but no way.

While the motors here down on the workbench I decide to open the house of one of the steppIR motors. Just looking for worn parts but there were not. On the pictures below one of the director element motor.

You can see the aluminium material is just a little affected by wind, rain and sun, but that’s normal after two years. Summarizing, I’m very happy with those results after two years in rain and wind, just 40Km from the sea border.

July 20, at the entrance steps of my house, I recognize directly the smell of burned circuit board and electronics components. I knew this air. It was the same air from the time of my active "home made period" long times ago, when things went wrong!
Looking around ant sticking my nose into everything(hi) to look were the problem came from.
Unmistakable it came from the SteppIR controller box, the fluidmotion.

For one year ago I had a problem with the controller cable into the tower, nearby the antenna rotor. In that time there must be a damage in the cable. So after one year of rainfall, the water has reached the DB25 connector trough te cable at the back of te controller, drop by drop.
Results: geoxcideerd connector, shortened contacts and…burned out driver print..

Unfortunately this time I had no opportunity to do a photo shoot of all work. Then only provide some pictures of the result below.