| W7IH |
Rating:  |
2021-05-26 | |
| Don't |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
This antenna has turned out to be the biggest mistake I have ever made in my amateur radio 'career'. If you don't watch the reel system while you're using it, you'll end up with a tangled up mess. If you don't bring along a couple of saw horses to support the carbon fiber mast during assembly, it snaps. And if you call SteppIR's technical support, you get crickets. Best of all, when I contacted Steppir via email and asked them to take it back, they told me I assembled it incorrectly, and referred me to YouTube.
All in all, I would have been better off taking the $1000 I paid for this and setting fire to it. Anyone thinking about spending $3K on one of their beams had better think long and hard about it first. |
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| KG5OWB |
Rating:  |
2021-03-13 | |
| Great park antenna |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| Purchased the CrankIR to do park activations on 2m-80m up to at least 100w using all modes. (It will handle legal limit, however). It has proven to fit the bill well. It is very portable in two small carrying bags. Probably too large for SOTA, however. Antenna comes with the radiator lengths pre-tuned for specific bands with different colored shrink tubing on the radiator. Tuning the radial for the corresponding bands was easy with an antenna analyzer with the result of all bands SWR 1.1-1.3. No tuner needed for operating. Setup time is about 15 minutes. Band switching just takes a few turns on the crank! Purchased some tent sandbags to attach to the tripod legs for windy conditions for added stability. Performance has been very good with DX on every park activation even at QRP levels with the solar minimums. |
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| K7ZAC |
Rating: |
2020-06-10 | |
| WOW! I'm impressed! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I got this antenna on a recommendation from a fellow HAM.
Right out of the box, this thing really performed! Band conditions have not been very good and in the field I was able to make great contacts on phone in the 80, 40, and 20 meter bands day and night. I set up in a field 40 miles northwest of Seattle and talked all over the U.S., South America, New Zealand and Asia. SWR always in the 1.0-1.3 to 1.
I was really reluctant to spend $1200 on a portable antenna. Most of the time I would shoot a wire up into a tree and thought I was doing pretty good. The CrankIR has out performed any wire with any balun I have used. Setting it up at home to compare with my G5RV and it performed equally as good. At times, even better.
Then there was the issue when there were no trees... my trips to the desert. I tried Buddy Poles, Ham Sticks and Little Tarhels. with little success. The CrankIR comes with a wonderful carbon fiber pole, great sturdy tripod and radial system. Packaged it up with the supplied bags takes up very little space in the truck. I can setup in about 15 minutes and take down in 10. Wow has it done well for me in the desert!
I am very happy with the quality, construction and performance of this antenna and highly recommend it. |
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| W5FCX |
Rating: |
2019-09-07 | |
| Impressive Portable Antenna |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
First impressions of the antenna build itself. It is a magnificent piece of engineering. I was impressed by the high-quality workmanship, top-notch materials used and the overall design of the antenna. In my case, I got the tripod as the mount. With the CrankIR, you get what you pay for. It came in around $1,100.00 including the tripod, along with an extra radial unit (that I accidentally ordered due to misunderstanding what was included in the base package on the CrankIR web page). The stainless steel wires should last a lifetime, especially for portable use.
My only complaint so far is the tensioning, or lack thereof, between the two spools on the radial unit. There’s not enough tension to keep the two spools bound together when you need them to act as a single unit. Other than that, the mechanical operation has been flawless.
I was able to very quickly establish some DX contacts in Columbia, Canda, Japan, Hungary, Cuba, Portugal and Spain across 20 and 40 meters using less than 100 watts on my Flex 6300. Needless to say, with a single east-facing elevated radial, this seemed fairly impressive initial results.
I also took the antenna on a road trip to Bear Lake, Idaho for a week. For more details, pictures, etc. check out my blog post:
http://www.w5fcx.net/2019/09/07/portable-crankir-review-by-w5fcx/
So, my overall conclusions about the CrankIR based upon these two operating scenarios is that it’s a very impressive piece of kit. It shows the real power of operating at true resonance, one of the primary strengths of all SteppIR antennas. I was most impressed by the quality of the antenna itself, its design and attention to detail.
Some might suggest that the CrankIR is a “compromise antenna”. I might debate that point a bit, as my operating results surpassed my expectations. So far as I can see, the only points of compromise are:
Single radial – the use of a single radial undoubtedly limits the antenna’s effectiveness as a vertical in all directions. However, moving the vertical to optimize for more than one target geo isn’t that hard, just takes a little time to manually adjust the radials
Manual retuning – in today’s world where everyone seeks to maximize convenience, the CrankIR does require a nominal amount of effort to manually retune the antenna and radial for each band. Once you have the radial bands marked, by heating the supplied shrink tubes at resonance per band, it only takes a minute or less to retune.
For portable operation, neither of these is an inconvenience and in fact becomes just part of the portable operating experience, which in my view is just fine and perfectly acceptable. As this antenna doesn’t appear to be intended for permanent installation, this doesn’t seem like a limitation at all.
So, if you have $1,000 burning a hole in your pocket, are into portable operation or DX operation, I would highly recommend the CrankIR. Its naturally resonant operation and low takeoff angle work well together for DX. And should you be fortunate enough to be alongside some saltwater, well my bet is this is one of the best DXpedition antennas you could have with you. |
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| K5TXT |
Rating: |
2019-01-14 | |
| Nice Portable Vertical |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Have used the CrankIR from several types of inland locations and it works pretty well as a portable vertical, using just the one elevated radial. Near the seashore anticipate improved low angle performance.
It is easy to tune and handles KW power.
Plan to do some testing with additional radials (elevated).
There is a hard case made by HPRC (Italy) Model 6200 that fits the SteppIR carry-bag perfectly. This case makes transporting the CrankIR as checked baggage easy, with a bit of room to spare for accessories and lightweight coax. There's a photo on the QRZ page.
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| WK0P |
Rating: |
2017-12-07 | |
| Works Very Well |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I wanted to wait a bit longer before I gave a review, but after using it in the CQWW CW Contest, along with reading some other reviews, here is mine:
First, I am not the most technical ham in the world by any stretch. I am more of an operator...if that makes sense.
That said, I received the antenna and the directions were easy to understand. Yes, there is some getting used to in regards to adjusting things but after doing it a few times it is a piece of cake.
Using an Antenna Analyser makes it super simple.
I used it strictly on 40 meters only just so I could test things out. Attached to a Orion II and pumping out only 100 watts.
Bottom line: I was able to work pretty much all I heard from the US, to Europe, to northeast Africa to South America to Japan.
Not bad at all.
Will be using it for the 10 Meter Contest coming up this weekend and I am sure it will work fine there as well.
Oh, and I got it to take along with me in the RV for portable operations and to get away from all the noise in Denver!
Highly recommend. |
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| AH6FC |
Rating: |
2017-12-07 | |
| Works well, with some limitations |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I purchased this antenna a year or so ago to use during some back and forth trips to KH6. Had an old 4BTV in KH6 but wanted something that might be more flexible. Still have visions of schlepping it up Mauna Kea one day.
In spite of lots of adjusting, fussing with radials, etc could not get it to work. Couldn't even tune it with antenna tuner. Was ready to sell it...figuring it was my ineptitude with antenna work...at least lately. Recently we moved back permanently to KH6 and I was in need of something until a better radiator could be found. This time I used an antenna analyzer....not sure how I made it 40 years as a ham withou t one...duh. Anyhow, tuned just fine on 20 meters. Couldn't do much good on other bands, but attribute that to radial length....have 20 meter radials on the antenna. Suspect if I adjusted these, it would resonate on other bands. Even set on 20 meters I can use my internal antenna tuner to use the antenna on 40 - 15 with decent SWR. Been working primarly CW, horrible noise level (commercial area), but still have worked about 16 new entities.
Bottom line....it is a wire vertical. Works with patience and adjustments of the length AND radial adjustments. Very portable and certainly better than a Buddy Pole or other shortened antennas (have used those too).
If you are highly technically competent you'll likely have an easier experience.
I'm an owner of a BigIR....this is a fabulous antenna and has reasonable stealth potential if you have trees to hide in :)
Aloha,
73, Bill |
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| VK4APN |
Rating: |
2017-11-15 | |
| A few idiosyncrasies sure, but a great antenna |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I have had the opportunity to set up and use the Crank IR for over 2 years now. My home was the ground base for the 2015 Willis DXpedition and the 2017 Mellish Reef DXpedition. I was lucky to have Adam an expert on the Crank IR, and a SteppIR man on the Willis effort.
So I have my own Crank plus have seen approx 20 hams trained on the in initial setup and use including the counterpoise heatshrink setup.
You do need to carefully read the manual (which I agree could be better and more up to date) than the actual antenna and the frequent tension adjustment is a little painful( but unavoidable if you think about it) but becomes second nature after a few tries.
The antenna is simple in electrical principle BUT the mechanics make the Crank IR what it is, a beautiful piece of engineering that simply works well. It packs up into a small carry bag and is quick and easy to setup. The presets heat shrink markings are always very close to the mark even in differing situations. |
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| KM4CQG |
Rating: |
2017-09-21 | |
| Crank IR a bit cranky |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I bought this antenna after using a Buddipole and was tired of using my Antenna Analyzer every time I made a band change. The Crank IR I thought had a LED that measured proper SWR. That's what there literature says and there Adds say. I was told when I called them that this feature was removed and there is now heat shrink tubing premarked on the Vertical portion and I would need to mark the radial section using my Analyzer. I was also told that I should order the 80M version as it works better on 40M and to get the heavy Tripod.
It's been 2 months since I 1st started testing out the Crank IR and Hurricane IRMA has taken out some of my dipoles so the Crank IR has gotten some great testing and use.
It's a very simple antenna design 1/4 vertical dipole is all it really is. The Crank portion can be a bit tricky when putting it away. Most tangles occur then but you don't know it till the next deployment.
The Heavy Tripod is not necessary and it's extra height is not needed just get the regular one you also can't adjust a individual leg for uneven terrain another negative.
The 80M extension basically gives you an additional 6 feet it's much heavier then the regular mast but it's very solid.
I have tested the Crank IR from 80M down to 10M and it's fantastic getting a low SWR under 1.3 is not a problem sometimes on the entire band.
The Antenna is no longer copper wire not sure what it is looks like stainless I took my time using my Rig Expert AA600 setting up the Radial on Band centers for lowest SWR since this was done a Analyzer is no longer needed another plus.
Deploying the Antenna for 20M is fast 40M to 80M takes a bit longer and you can fold back the Radial if you don't have ground space for it.
SteppIR manuals are not up to date and not written well but there product quality is the opposite it's excellent.
The Crank IR I received indicated that about only 450 of these antennas are made. It can also handle lots of wattage
If the manual was written better and crank tension didn't need constant attention when deploying for band changes I would give it a 5.
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| KO7I |
Rating: |
2017-06-25 | |
| excellent portable antenna |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Live from Field Day 2017 Kansas, this year I trekked from my native nw Washington to a little town of Fowler, KS (near Dodge City) for field day. I have to honest as a EMC engineer by profession I had my doubts about this little antenna. Very quickly I was eating crow. From the middle of the US I was able to hold and command a 40M frequency with the band open to both coasts. 1 qso would be east coast and next would be west coast - literally. Once the band opened to KH6, they were easy-peasy to work, even some JA's as DX. Our primary antenna for 40M was supposed to be a 1/4 wave slopper on 40M, it barely got used.
2 thumbs to the CrankIR. |
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