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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
KF9YR Rating: 2002-12-24
Great Antenna! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I put up my 3-element beam on a 50 foot crankup in the beginning of October and I have been having a great time with it.

I have a Ten Tec Titan amp and have had no problems running 1500 watts into it CW or SSB.

It has been below zero (F) here a few times this winter and the elements have adjusted with no problems.

I had a vertical and wire antennas in the past and there is no comparision between them and this yagi.

I had good results in the ARRL 10 meter contest using the bi-directional mode working Europe and SW US without moving the antenna, same goes for Japan and SA. The 180 mode and bi mode both save a lot of time when you're S&P in a contest.

I'd buy another (will have to talk my wife into a tower for our weekend place!) and recommend this to my friends...

George / KF9YR
Dodgeville, WI
KD5FOY Rating: 2002-11-08
tech support kudos Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
did you ever have one of those days? nothing went right, broke an anvil? cracked the concrete etc? 2 days ago, was a bad day.
i brought the tower done and then laid it over. put up new supports for 40/80m inverted vee and another support so i could do some experimenting with shunt feeding the tower. stood the tower back
up, cranked it up to full height, swung the beam around, the swr on the 3 ele beam goes seriously weird on all bands. lowered the tower, laid it over, i had managed to snag the controll cable
on the tower, and cracked the connectors to two of the three stepper motors. call fluidmotion, they had me do some quick debugging with an ohm meter, sure enough i lacked continuity on pins 1 & 2.(side note between pins 1-2, 3-4,5-6 you should read 22 ohms) mike and company checked around, and found a replacement for the price of $15 + shipping and overnited it to me. just finished installing the new controll cable and the quick disconnets i ordered. swr is back to normal on all bands.

WAY TO GO MIKE AND COMPANY!!!!!

now, if any one has an anvil they want broken, 18 inch concrete pad they want cracked. 6 inch steel pipe that needs a kink etc, get a hold of me, we can work out a deal:-)
KC5NYO Rating: 2002-10-24
Great Antenna! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After owning only verticals, this is my first beam antenna. Mounted it on a 9' GME rooftop quad tower, with the antenna resting at only 28' or so. Wow! I never knew what I was missing on the bands! I've never even heard an African station in two years of operating at this QTH, but there they were on 10 meters the next day! S5 & S6 signals on the GAP vertical were 10db over 9 on the SteppIR. I also got the transceiver interface.......... never have to worry about manual band changes, it automatically follows you around the bands! The correct antenna length at every frequency....... what a concept! And the guys at FM go the extra mile for customer service too! Great antenna, great company!
N9VV Rating: 2002-07-06
Best thing since pockets on shirts Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This beam is the best thing since pockets on shirts and caraway seeds in Rye bread :-)

I am delighted with the materials, construction, and now the operation of my new 3el SteppIR beam from Fluidmotion.

Pse visit http://www.n9vv.com/SteppIR.html to see a chronological list of pictures showing how it goes together so easily. I put it up by myself in just a few hours.

SWR is 1:1.0 on all bands and all freq I tested 20M through 10M. I am not an EE and can't recite the F/B measurements for you, but from my experience an S9 signal drops to about S3 when I flip the 180 degree switch (effectively reversing the beam instantenously).

I believe this is the greatest advance in directional antennas in 50 years. I can't wait for the 5 element extension kit (hihihi).

I had a very difficult time with Airborne Express and I recommend that you work with Jim, John, and Mike to choose another shipper. They have options that might be a bit more expensive, but certainly you will get your precious ANT in a timely manner and all in one piece.

I look fwd to your questions and comments about the webpages and this wonderful new SteppIR Yagi.
dit dit
de ken n9vv

http://www.n9vv.com
KG6S Rating: 2002-03-08
Outstanding Performance Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have owned the 3 element yagi for 1 month and the performance has been outstanding. The first two contacts were with EA8 and VP2 both reports were 59+ running less than 100 watts!
The antenna was easy to assemble and attach to the tower. The support from the staff at Fluidmotion has been second to none.
If you are want an antenna that will match your operating frequency automatically, has no lossy traps, provides phenominal front-to-back ratio and considerable forward gain. This is the one!!
KO7P Rating: 2002-02-18
Happy New User Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The Stepp-IR antenna was a pleasure to put together, easy to install on the tower, all materials are of high quality, the controller looks great, and it has performed very well on the air. I have been able to easily break pile-ups with one or two calls. It is nice to hear "Big Signal" from a DX station after breaking a pileup.

I have had mine up for about two months and so far so good. As of today it is a 5.

Jeff - Ko7p
W7KWS Rating: 2001-12-19
It's a beam revolution Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
What an innovation. John. Mike and Jim at Fluidmotion may have changed the way ALL yagis will be made in the future. No traps to suck out power means monoband performance on all bands. Nearly all fiberglass outside construction means little or no corrosion.

The system looks to be well done mechanically as well. The mechanism uses precision stepping motors and sprockets to feed the elements off the reels into the fiberglass tubing for a smooth operation. The controller makes it easy, allowing you to use the 17 pre-stored antennas, or to design your own antennas using Yagi Optimizer and setting the new element lengths into memory. You can even measure the elements out in inches from the comfort of your operating position. OR, have the controller read the frequency from your transceiver’s CPU and automatically scale the antenna to follow the radio from 20 meters to six.

It’s a new business for them, and they seem to be very interested in customer support. I’ve had no less than three calls from them giving me information and asking how things were going.

If you want the latest thing in Yagis and monoband performance on all bands from 20 to six, including all frequencies in between, this is the antenna for you.

Another note: The first thing my friends ask is "how about the fact that the boom length is suboptimum on all but one frequency"? The answer is; there is no need to adjust boom length, for the following reasons: When you change frequency, the elements are tuned to the optimum frequency for the boom. Remember, this antenna is tunable from 14 mHz to 54 mHz, so they don’t have to worry about covering an entire band with one setting, like other yagis. This gives them the freedom to adjust element length to optimize gain and front to back ratio without having to worry about wide bandwidth. They are, therefore trading off wide bandwidth for boom length adjustment, but it doesn’t mater because the antenna is tunable. And don’t worry, the antenna is wide enough to tune around. There are typically two or three settings per band.

The patent claims on this antenna should look really interesting.

73 to all & Happy Holidays,

Bob, W7KWS









I saw this antenna at a hamfest and immediately ordered one before they were in production.