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Reviews For: SteppIR Fluidmotion 6-20mtr Yagi

Category: Antennas: HF: Yagi, Quad, Rotary dipole, LPDA

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Review Summary For : SteppIR Fluidmotion 6-20mtr Yagi
Reviews: 117MSRP: 1099
Description:
Remotely ajustable 6-20 mtr continuosly...available as Dipole-2 elements or 3 elements Yagi.Copper tape length inside fiberglass tubing controlled by stepper motors. 1500W rated!
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.steppir.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
22.51174.6
W1RG Rating: 2003-10-01
Best antenna I've ever owned Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've been using the 3 el w 6 meter passive since August 2002. I can say without reservation it's the best antenna I've ever used. The customer relations (friendship) of the FM people is without rival. When you call them, you speak with the owners. They really care obout you, and about their product(s).

Unlike a previous poster, I've actually used the system. Can't figure how you can bad mouth something you've never had your hands on.

Most highly recommended for your consideration.

Gil, W1RG
NT9E Rating: 2003-09-28
This is the way all antennas should work! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I ordered mine (3el + 6m passive director)10//18/2002, received it 12/18/2002, was not able to put it up till 9/15/2003. Works as advertised!!! All bands have an swr as flat as a pancake. No lossy traps or linear loaded doodads here. Just a resonant antenna on any any freq from 13.8 Mhz - 60 Mhz(in General Coverage Mode).

I highly reccomend this antenna to anyone needing a rotatable HF multi element antenna. Super for DXing!
LY2TA Rating: 2003-07-15
Good antenna Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
We used SteppIR during CQ WPX SSb 2003 DX trip to the Gambia. this is great antenna. Easy to erect, good SWR 20-10m. The control box easy to use.
Exelent antenna for DXpeditions...
W9SN Rating: 2003-07-14
Great Antenna!! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is an amazing antenna all the way around. The front to back blew me away. I can drop signals that are S-9 on the front so far down into the noise, they can hardly be heard. The front gain is also great. I also notice there is plenty of side rejection as well. I have it on a crank up tower and when lowering it to only 40 ft, it still performs like a much larger array. Never will use trapped tribanders again!
W7TK Rating: 2003-07-12
5/5 Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've had some very good HF antennas. The SteppIR 3el in action seem a canon to all the other BB guns. When first approached I thought the 180 switch operation was a gimmick. Nope! It was amazing to be in the middle of a station N and one S where depending on pointing you could hear one and barely the other. the 180 switch when either N or S made perfect ++ copy every time. FB is great but greater still is the effective front to front. The SteppIR 3 el is the open wire line of HF beam antennas!
3W2EA Rating: 2003-05-22
Highly Intelligent Antenna Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
My 3-Element Steppir arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, Saigon, as promised two months after placing my order. Everything was carefully wrapped by hand in bubble wrap and cling film wrap, and shipped in one cardboard box. A very detailed, and easy to follow, Instruction Manual printed in color was included.

After careful study of the Instruction Manual, and the antenna parts, I elected to make two changes to the design.

Firstly, I rewired the antenna to run all the control cables inside the boom. The main control cable enters the underside of the boom at the center of gravity, adjacent to the mast.

Secondly, I riveted the main fibre glass element tubes to the Steppir motor housings. Care was taken not to obstruct full retraction of the elements.

I installed my 3-Element Steppir on an NK9 Hilomast, at an elevation of 110m on the roof of the Sun Wah Tower overlooking the River Saigon. A Yaesu G-1000SDX rotator turned the antenna. Polyphaser lightning protection was installed in line with the coax, and with the rotator, but not with the Steppir control cable. Fluidmotion advised that whilst Polyphaser may have a suitable product, they had not tested it and had doubts if it was in fact rated for the Steppir. Clearly it is essential to fully retract the elements during lightning storms. Given time, Fluidmotion should really research and provide a lightning shunt in the control cable.

I purchased the Transceiver interface for the Yaesu FT-1000MP Mk-V, used with the Yaesu Quadra Linear Amplifier. I did not connect it to a PC.

On air the 3-Element Steppir performed flawlessly, giving as much rf Gain as could be expected from any three element monoband Yagi on any amateur HF band, and brick wall Front to Back.

The 3-Element Steppir is a highly innovative design, and to take full advantage of its features one needs to adapt operating procedures. It is important to remember that one must not transmit whilst switching the rf direction of the antenna, and as one could when rotating a Yagi.

It takes considerably longer to switch bands with a 3-Element Steppir, than with a mult-band Yagi. However, switching the rf direction with a 3-Element Steppir is far quicker than rotating a Yagi 180 degrees.

The 3-Element Steppir is not a perfectly silent antenna. One can hear the Steppir Motors, and the copper elements brush against the inner face of the fibre glass element poles making a sound like the gentle rustling of leaves in a strong wind.

The 3-Element Steppir is a great achievement, and its design is highly innovative. I feel that this is very much a Mk-1 version and that Fluidmotion will make many improvements in later versions.

73 Best DX

Peter Emmerton, 3W2EA, G4IOV.






K8IA Rating: 2003-05-10
A really great small antenna! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This 3 element SteppIR is the smallest yagi I have ever owned for 20-10m and I am amazed at how well it plays. I purchased it with its contest flexibility in mind, being able to switch pattern direction in a few seconds and being able to go bi-directional when needed. It does these tasks admirably.

Gain-wise I dont think much is lost against most of the tribanders either, even though its 16 foot boomlength does suggest compromises on 20m. I sure dont wait in line very much, even with 100 watts. Mine is up at a modest 78 feet and has been up for about 7 weeks as of today 5/10/03.

My first contest with the 3 el SteppIR was CQ WPX SSB, LP 15M only. With 100 watts I made 859 qso's in 475 multipliers for about 745K pts, which is, at this date 5/10/03, the highest claimed score in the USA in the SO15LP class. It worked well.

The 51 antennas programmed into the controller seem to be well engineered. My f/b is excellent, as advertised. I fooled around with progeamming my own but always find myself going back to the defaults. They work great!

Factory support, as reported here and on the SteppIR relflector, has been exceptional. I sure hope that can continue as the company grows!

Now the only question seems to be, plan for an upgrade to the just announced 4 el version or get another 3 el to stack below this one? ;-)
KS8M Rating: 2003-04-25
Super Antenna and Great Customer Service Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Have had the 3 element antenna in the air since
October 2002. WOW!!!!! What you hear is what you
work........This past week had a severe wind storm
with winds gusting to plus 100. Lost parts of 2
elements. Spoke with John and he gave me some great advice and sent me a mod to add some extra
strength a 2 elements. NO COST for the elements,
mod or shipping........NOW THAT'S CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you John and Mike for
making this a fun hobby for us lucky hams that have this SUPER antenna.

K3KWO Rating: 2003-04-01
Great antenna Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I am running the 3-element beam with the interface box for my Icom 706mkII and the system runs great and the SWR is very low on all frequencies operated. I have run it on all bands from 20 thru 6 meters and it has performed perfectly every time. It is rather helpfull to be able to reverse the beam direction at the push of a button instead of turning the beam all of the way 180 degrees about. This does cut down on the wear and tear on the rotator motor and gears. It was easy to assemble and not too heavy to install.
KH7YD Rating: 2003-02-24
Excellent antenna that is worth every penny Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have been using my 3-ele yagi for a couple of months now and am completely satisfied with the results. It is now on a MA550 crank up tower at about 65 ft. It makes me feel good to break most pile ups on a first try even though I run only 1 or 5 watts of power, both on CW and SSB.

I have a 180ft Ext. Double Zepp up at 100ft and a 220ft sloping dipole and I had a doubt that a yagi will beat it on the higher bands. When I first put up the yagi it was only at 28 ft and it worked but... I ended up switching to my wires on some headings. SInce I put up the yagi at 65 ft I never used the wires on the higer bands. The SteppIR yagi is always outperforming the wires.

The results are not in yet but I claimed the second score on the west coast in QRP category in ARRL 10m CW 2002 contest. The antenna is not cheap but it is worth every penny.

I only hope the guys at FluidMotion will introduce a yagi with more elements and include 7mhz band. I will be the first in line to buy such an antenna.
KH7YD/W7