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Reviews For: Steppir BigIR Fluid Motion general coverage vertical

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

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Review Summary For : Steppir BigIR Fluid Motion general coverage vertical
Reviews: 6MSRP: 479
Description:
General coverage vertical for 6.8 to 60 Mhz. Variable radiator length tuned with stepper motor much like Fluid Motion's SteppIR Yagi & Dipole. Full size 1/4 wave (with 3/4 wave option available above 21 MHz.)
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.steppir.com/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0064.8
KK8ZZ Rating: 2006-03-24
What a great antenna! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The ultimate test of an antenna is simply... does it work, under somewhat difficult conditions, day-in and day-out? This one does.... all kinds of weather, a little pricey perhaps, but oh my, so easy to tune, so easy on the suburban eyes! Mine has weathered 4 midwestern winters with nary a complaint, always fast tuning, always great signals... this antenna is highly recommended from a ham of over 35 years' experience....
PA5J Rating: 2006-01-29
Not cheap but good Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Great antenna concept, imho the best performance you can get from any vertical antenna. Get the remote control option and the antenna frequency simply follows your rig's settings. A few critical points however:

1) It's a bit difficult to apply the silicone tape to weatherproof all joints. It would be easier if this stuff came like a roll of tape instead of a long ribbon. Drop the ribbon accidentally and there's sand and dust on it you can't get off.

2) The coax terminal and the control wire terminal are situated a bit close together. Makes it more difficult to weather proof either one of them.

3) The control cable is connected to the antenna by means of a flimsy plastic plug/connector. I hope they don't use this type on the Steppir beams that are up in the sky and 'unreachable'. They should use a much sturdier type of plug/connector here (metal or UV resistant plastic, waterproof), comparable to the types used for antenna rotors.

4) Rather expensive, especially outside the US.

Still I think this is the best vertical multi-band alternative on the market.

73, Jaap PA5J
KG7DX Rating: 2005-05-03
Fabulous Antenna Time Owned: more than 12 months.
With my move to the 'burbs, the tower was out of the question. I was AMAZINGLY fortunate to find a BiggIR on eHam.com only slightly used. After over 14 months of service, it remains fast, flexible, and really HONKS on HF and 6 meters! I am so impressed with the high quality of construction of the antenna, and the results of my work with it in a highly-suburban backyard. Radials are absolutely necessary, and I bought a DX Engineering vertical plate to make the attachments of each leg of the ground plane a breeze. After a little tuning, vola! Great signals 2X, and complete ease of use and freedom from worry about all that rooftop stuff. I've had a Gap Challenger (expensive dummy load, what a piece of scrap aluminum!) and the good old Cushcraft R-5 (when Cushcraft's verticals still worked) but this critter outperforms anything short of the A-3 tribander I had before. Kudos to the guys who made this... great engineering! Survives the worst of Ohio snowbelt winters, BTW. If you're in an antenna-restricted environment, this is the one for you!!
K9VDD Rating: 2004-12-13
EXCELLANT VERTICAL ANTENNA!! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
With my ongoing enjoyment on 20 - 6 mtrs with my 4 element SteppIR, I decided to put up a vertical on top of my garage. I already had a pipe up thru the garage roof for a support to my 80 mtr antenna, so I just removed that, bored the hole out to 1 7/8" and installed a rubber roof boot like is used for a plumbing vent, and mounted the antenna in the rafters of the garage. Radials are stappled to the rafters and it works very well. Another EXCELLANT FLUID MOTION PRODUCT !!
WV8PC Rating: 2004-12-13
BigIR Fantastic! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I love this antenna. I was looking for an antenna that was going to be easy to tune and work all band 6 to 40 meters. I looked at Butternut and some of the others. I decided the Butternut, while a good antenna, would be a pain to tune. I selected the BigIR. I admit I was a little skeptical when I opened the box. It turned out that it was a breeze to put together and set up...and Im not very good at putting stuff together. It tunes very easy via the controller box. I have put my AL 80B through it with no problems of any kind. I have had no controller problems even running a second floor shack. I did howerver put a couple of snap on chokes from Wireman on the controller cable to be safe, one at the controller and one at the antenna. I hope this company is around for a long time. This is the only way to build a vertical antenna in my opinion, it just makes so much sense to do it this way. For me the BigIR is now the ONLY vertical made that I will buy. Fluid motion is also working on add on kits for 60 and 80 meters.
K7IM Rating: 2003-02-02
Another Great Antenna from Fluid Motion Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I received my BigIR general coverage Fluid Motion vertical today and just like their great SteppIR yagi, this antenna exceeded my expectations.

Tried it on 40, 30, 20, 17, 15, 12, 10 & 6. Worked everyone we called CW & SSB. 1:1 SWR easy to find with the remote controller.

Because of the different configurations and grounds found in the typical ham station, the ability to fine tune the length of the radiator with a stepper motor allows easy matching to any frequency from 6.8 to 60 MHz.

And with a full sized 1/4 wave radiator (3/4 wave option is selectable above 21 MHz) it plays very well. (Just look at what N0AX & K7LXC say in their excellent vertical book about full sized 1/4 wave verticals.)

It is also light, simple and easy to handle. One person can easily tip it up from horizontal to vertical and slip it onto the supplied stub mounting mast.

(And it looks like it will be an excellent portable antenna as it collapses down to a easy to carry length.)

I loved the 3 element SteppIR yagi when they brought it out in late 2001, and now I love this new BigIR vertical. I really like having antennas that are the correct length for the frequency in use.

What are the guys at Fluid Motion going to do next?

Thanks Mike, John & Jim for another great product!

Cheers!

Kim Bottles - K7IM
Bainbridge Island, WA