| JA1WWE |
Rating:      |
2017-07-18 | |
| My best Antenna |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
10 years have passed since I built this Antenna in 2007. I was satisfied with the performance,but
so far,I experienced two times of troubles.
One was trouble of Director ECU and another was that of Reflector ECU.
Those were caused by lack of material strength of Gear drive shaft,but,
I could obtain reinforced countermeasure parts and restored.
Thereafter,this Antenna works perfectly without any problem. |
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| M1WML |
Rating:      |
2016-03-31 | |
| 10 year review.. |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
this antenna has now been up for over 10 years and I can only describe it as BRILLIANT....
it has never let me down at all..
great antenna mike keep up the good work...
10/10..
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Earlier 5-star review posted by M1WML on 2007-07-03
i must start buy saying i very seldom give any any product a 5 rating but i feel in this instance i have no choice.. this is one VERY serious peice of kit and a top quality product..
it was very easy to put together if you follow the instructions. we put it together in about 4 hours total so not to bad realy.. but i did have a slight problem with the db-25 plug that plugs in to the controler basicaly i wired it backwards which then blew the driver board on the controler.. this is a easy mistake for use to make in europe as we have to soilder our own plugs on in europe as they don,t come already soilderd from the factory. if you buy in the usa you don,t get this problem.. so a quick call to ron stone at vine antennas and the problem was sorted. he sent me a brand new driver board and a new stepper motor just to be on the safe side.
i will up date this info after 12 months of use but i must say that my first impresions of this antenna are fault less.. if i can here them i can work them with no problems....p.s.. i don,t use any amplifiers either.. no need with one of these.. |
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| G3KMG |
Rating:      |
2016-01-11 | |
| Reliable and long lasting |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| Installed December 2003. Used most days. No faults in operation in all this time. A superb investment. |
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| KI7M |
Rating:     |
2015-11-21 | |
| Solid Performer |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
First off, I've have had my Steppir 3 element 20-6 meter yagi since 2006. I removed a large 30 ft. boom 5 element quad array to put it up. You might say after listening to the talk I sort of fell in love the symmetry of the 3 element that you could reverse or go bi-directional. I could have got a 4 element at the time and sometimes I wish I did. But for what I got it has been the best beam I ever had.
I have had monobanders on 20,15 and 10 meters. I've had 2 element triband and 5 band quads (maco, home brew and lightning bolt, even once a gotham if you remember that). For the $1500 dollars I paid for the stepper it has given me the best over all service of any antenna I know. I am as some say a quad man in the quad-vs-yagi debates and still think about putting up another large quad array. There is something about pushing the limits that appeals to my nature and since reading Bill Orr's Quad Antenna Handboom I fell in love with them. I've also read his Beam Antenna Handbook too.
But my 3 element steppir has proved time and again what a great multiband antenna it is. I've done a lot of thinking about what you get for your money in these antennas. I know they are expensive. But over 40+ years of SWLing, BCBDX and ham radio chasing DX and contesting and rag chewing, I've come to believe you can't beat the steppir for all around performance. 6 bands on one antenna that is a monobander for your money. Think on that long an hard as I have.
I have had a controller chip die on the Friday that CQWWPHN was about to start in 2010; I have had to replace the driven element steppir unit due to intermittent contacts which I think was in the SO-239 and/or toroid balumn arrangement; a slight tilting of the beam needed correcting so I pinned the boom-to-mast bracket now; gone thru two tail twisters and a couple of Yaesu G-1000DXA's with their problems. This summer I brought down the steppir and repainted the fiberglass tubes as well as done some other things you can see on QRZ. For those reasons concerning the steppir 3 element I did not give it a rating of 5, only 4 which I really had to think about.
But pound for pound after years of use I have come to believe the steppir is the best beam antenna on the market. I get upset when something goes wrong but the support from Fluidmotion of their products has been outstanding. Constantly in my operating I get compliments like 'you are the strongest signal on the band' or 'you are 20 to 40 over' while running about 1200-1400 watts. I have a good setup with K3,P3 by Elecraft, a Command Tech HF-2500 amp, and the 3 element SteppIR at 78 feet. So I'm not running a dipole at 15 feet or whatever although I sure work a few of them.
But...for what it is worth I think the Steppir can't be beat giving you a monobander on six bands. I now have mine modified adding 12 feet of boom and two 6 meter directors as you can see on my QRZ page but basically, it's the same antenna I bought from the factory. Sooner or later I will likely add a forth element by adding an other 6 feet to the boom and directors on 10-20 meters. They aren't perfect but the support has always been there to back me up.
Owning an antenna like this requires the support of the makers due to it's steppir motor design and exclusive parts requirments. If I was to rely stickly on myself to maintain my beam I would probably be using another quad. But for 9 years now my steppir has proven itself capable of standing up to the rain, snow, winds, sun, time and all the rest and the money I paid for it was very well spent.
If you want an antenna that you can put up and have a monobander on six bands, it can be reversed and put in bi-directional configuration, and give you many years of service, check of the steppir products. FWIW, Terry, KI7M
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| M0ZMX |
Rating:      |
2015-07-18 | |
| Just superb |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I initially purchased this antenna through Vine Antennas as a 2 element with 30/40m trombone.
as with Everything I purchase through Ron, the service is Second to none..
I had the 2 element up for about 2 years or so and I can honestly say that it worked flawlessly. I am a firm believer that full size elements (no coils or traps) is the best way forward, and I have not been disappointed.
In the 2 element design there is a noticeable gain/rejection over and above a dipole, and spent many hours with a local friend and Ham comparing with his hex beam, to which it seemed to be on Par,, with a boom of only 54" (4'-6" or 1.37m) it represents little more than A dipole in size to me.. I would park the SteppIR parallel with the house when not in use and that seemed to be fine with the neighbours.
At the beginning of 2014 I decided to purchase the 3rd element upgrade kit through Ron at 'Vine Antennas' (did I mention Vine Antennas ?).. The upgrade went without issue, everything was 'spot on' I didn't have to make any modifications to anything , it was a simple task. As I had to add more wiring and change one piece for a longer length, I decided to take the EHU's apart and check all was well.. Everything was clean and dry. 2 years at 40ft and no water,dirt or insect ingress at all..
initial tests were amazing, the first thing was the front to back compared to the 2 element was considerable, The beam width was also narrower and the forward gain very noticeably better (and believe me I am a skeptical bugger at best of times!!). It has been up on the mast now just over 12 months and I can say with honesty that it is an amazing antenna, and if I had to purchase again, it would be the same again.
As I said, it has worked flawlessly since initial purchase in early 2012 and with such great support from Ron I'm confident that I made exactly the right purchase. 5 out of 5. |
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| K2GAV |
Rating:      |
2015-05-19 | |
| Great antenna - documentation is messy |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I've only been using the 3 element SteppIR for a couple days now, but it's working great. I bought this with all options including the 30/40m trombone dipole, high wind kit, trombone truss kit, upgraded wiring junction box and 4th 6 meter element. BTW, the total weight of all this, assembled and NOT including the mast is 72lbs, not the 58 lbs SteppIR indicates in their manual. Yes, I lifted it and measured it on a scale!
The antenna performs well. I like the 180 reversal feature and the bidirectional mode, neither of which are available with a conventional yagi. I did not purchase the Autotrack option, but so far the manual tuning doesn't seem to be difficult. Typically, the steps are in 50 kHz increments, so the bandwidth of the antenna is sufficiently wide to not require tuning if you're sliding around the band in this size window.
I recommend mounting a SteppIR on a tilt over tower only because of the complexity of this antenna, because if and when it needs service, it'd be a lot easier to service on the ground. Mine is on a new UST MA-770MDP tower with rotating base and manual tilt over.
I'm glad I received this antenna a full month before the tower was ready. The assembly manuals are a mess! Rather than update their manuals as improvements have been made, they simply supply a plethora of addendum sheets and sub-manuals. Also, the options manuals are more in tune with a retrofit install rather than a new installation.
If I were an experienced SteppIR assembler, I'd have known what sections to igonre as inapplicable. However, I wasn't then (but I am now) experienced after reading all the supplied documentation and crossing out (with a red pencil) anything that didn't apply. The biggest mess was with the 30/40m dipole kit. Here are some examples of inapplicable documentation:
1. Installation instructions for the old fiberglass element to trombone loops brackets. (these have been modified and repurposed to use as the truss kit tie points at the element ends).
2. Installation of tape over the fiberglass element extension junctions - polyolefin heat shrink now used.
3. Photos of the old gray stepper motor units shown.
4. Reference to a counter weight bars for balance (for 2 element versions only)
5. Photos and assembly instructions for the old style CPVC liner for the driven element
6. References to the old style 6 meter element when retrofitting the 30/40 kit.
7. Controller upgrades for the 30/40 option when retrofitted.
Again, now that I'm "educated" I know what instructions applied to my new purchase, but it took a lot of time to figure this out. I wonder what might be done incorrectly by those customers who don't devote the time to figure this out. At least I got somewhat of a history lesson the evolution of this product.
I'm duly impressed with the performance of this product in use. Of course, you should know that my previous antenna for 20-6 is a Cushcraft R6000 vertical at 25 feet. Of course any yagi at 70 feet would excel.
I did make some measurement of F/B ratio using the 180 degree reversal mode during a pretty stable propagation period. On 20m the F/B ratio is specified at 20db on 15m. I measured a 22 db difference (S7 - S9+10). I know an S meter isn't a lab grade piece of equipment, but I'm satisfied.
I'll update this review after I have more experience with it, but I'd highly recommend it at this point.
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| W7PV |
Rating:    |
2015-01-04 | |
| Great antenna, but.... |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I've had the Steppir about 10 years, and until the last few years it performed very well. However, I started getting high swr readings and contacted the company, who advised me to do a 'calibrate', which I did. That didn't solve the problem, so I took it down and inspected the driven element motor & housing. Nothing wrong there, and knowing I was going to move in a year or so, I decided to live with the situation. When I did take it down completely for the move, I discovered that both the director and reflector motor drive shafts were broken, and I had been using a very expensive rotatable dipole. $300 later it's fixed and back up at another QTH, but it seems to me that this problem is a design flaw and likely experienced by many (judging from the pile of EHU's awaiting repair at their shop in Bellevue). I believe the company should alert their customers to the problem, and take some responsibility for it. Also, the fiberglass elements had been degraded by UV, and should be painted to avoid this. When working properly, you can't beat the antenna for performance. |
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| AE7G |
Rating:      |
2015-01-03 | |
| second review |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
This is my second review, after two years of ownership.
I bought this antenna used. It was apparently one of the earlier models with the older controller.
After a careful inspection and with only $100 in parts the antenna was brought to like-new condition. It has been working flawlessly.
I have this mounted on a nine foot GlenMartin rooftop tower, ten feet above the roof, only about 35 feet above ground on a hilltop location.
Working with only 100 watts and a K3, this antenna has been a joy. I have been getting consistent DX contacts with great signal reports everywhere. I have little or no difficulty breaking pileup, even when calling to the East Coast and competing with other eastern callers.
SWR has been excellent on all bands and I have not had to make any adjustments for the low mounting height.
I love this antenna and strongly recommend it. |
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| K3AJ |
Rating:      |
2014-08-19 | |
| Update After 2 Years - Still |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| My original review from 2 years ago (see below) was focused on the ordering, assembly, and installation process. At the time, I stated that "If this thing keeps working long-term the way it is working now, I will be one happy camper." Well, 2 years on, this antenna has been completely trouble free. I have had it down once (I decided to remove the six meter additional element and install a 5-element M2 yagi a couple of feet above the SteppIR). Everything was still in good shape, so I left it alone. My concern about the exposure of the control wiring at the surge protector installed at the tower base has proven to be unfounded so far. I can't say that the SteppIR didn't work well on 6M, but since using the 5-el M2, I notice that it has a much sharper pattern than the SteppIR on 6M, perhaps indicating more gain for pretty much the same boom length. On HF, this antenna continues to play very well. I recently got around to ordering the amplifier relay lock out and RS-232 boards for the SDA-100. I have the antenna automated using the PST Rotator software (see my review of PST Rotator - highly recommended) and it works very well with both logging/control programs that I use (N1MM and DXLab). My only nit-pick is that the relay lock out card was kind of expensive for what was on it (a DIP relay and maybe a half-dozen surface mount passive components). I really think SteppIR could have integrated this functionality in the SDA-100 to begin with at very little cost. During the past year, I have also had the experience of helping a friend of mine rehab and install a used 3-el SteppIR (this one with the 40M trombone). He received lots of helpful advice and good service from the folks at SteppIR ordering some materials to do the rehab. SteppIR offered him a very fair deal on trading in his old-style controller to upgrade to the SDA-100. My friend painted the fiberglass tubes (they had some UV damage, but not too bad) and we cut away the old tape and installed the heat shrink tubing. He did not take my advice to pin the boom to mast clamps (see my original review) and so we had the pleasure of taking his antenna down again after the first wind storm (he installed DX Engineering clamps the second time around). His antenna also went up without incident and is working great. |
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| OT1A |
Rating:      |
2013-02-17 | |
| outstanding... even after 8 years |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
8 years later, I never thought (as many hams think) that the antenna would resist weather and sun attacks without any problem.
I'm now in the middle of the ARRL dx contest SOHP 15m. I can compete with all european stations.
This is THE antenna if you want :
- achievements on the 5 upper bands (I never played on 50Mhz). The antenna will provide me WAS,WAZ and DXCC on 10m/15m/20m and dxcc on 17/12.
- simply 1:1 swr all the time. You save money on the tx tuner option
- a lightweight antenna were you simple retract all elements into the boxes.
- for the hams who have a tilt-tower and who don't like working at a height, it is simple to intall the antenna with feet on the ground. (see pictures on my blog)
To be honest : I do a yearly maintenance and I think it's needed.
On my blog
http://www.ot1a.blogspot.be/2012/07/steppir-after-7-years-general.html
you can see pictures of the rubber parts and how I do the necessary protection on it.
I also clean the fiber elements with water (bird shit can interact with the fiber) and retape all elements. This cost me one hour a year.
Anyway a big 5/5 for the antenna !
73s
Ken
OT1A
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