| W2PD |
Rating:  |
2024-01-29 | |
| terrific antenna |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Ten Year Update:
Over a decade later and the antenna continues to work well. Flawless band switching, low SWR and I can usually work what I hear. I live in a valley and the antenna is surrounded by large trees. In spite of this less than ideal location, I now have over 260 confirmed DXCC entities, 8 band DXCC and 8 band WAS. Overall, I could not be more satisfied with this antenna.
I live in an antenna restricted neighborhood and was looking for the most inconspicuous antenna that would still allow me to work some DX. Eighteen months ago I chose the Steppir BigIR and have been quite pleased with it. I put down about 50 radials (25 to 33 ft) and covered the base unit with a “resin rock” from Home Depot. The antenna is in my backyard and virtually invisible from the street. In spite of being surrounded by trees the antenna works very well; it follows the frequency of my K3 and KPA500 perfectly and will not allow transmission until the antenna stops tuning (make sure that you get both options on the controller). My SWR is always 1:1 and I can easily work 12 and 17 meters along with the more traditional bands. With very casual operating (I work full time plus) I have over 100 counties confirmed.
A few weeks ago my control cable shorted and the controller stopped working. Jim Streible (K4DLI), provides technical support for Steppir and was the perfect “Elmer”. After asking me to make a series of resistance and voltage measurements he figured out the problem. After having me replace 2 resistors and a chip I was back on the air. With any other company I suspect I would have had to send the controller back to the factory.
Yes, the antenna is more complex and expensive than most but the advantages; including superb after-market support, make it a wise purchase for those that cannot put up a tower and beam. |
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| G7EMK |
Rating: |
2022-06-21 | |
| One Amazing Verticle |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Following extension work on my home I was no longer able to have my tower and 3 element SteppIR. So I took to looking at how I could best get back on the HF bands. Following hours of research, as I did not want to compromise too much, I settled on the SteppIR Big IR. I dealt with SteppIR direct as they no longer had a distributor in the UK. They provide great support and advise.
I must say that I'd read all the hype on this antenna and wanted to see for myself.
Building the antenna was relatively easy compared to the previous beam, and after 3 hours it was up in the air. Well it is tall standing at 33ft.
Does it work?
Yes it does. Extremely well on all bands. I have used the RigExpert AA-1400 antenna analyser to ensure maximum radiation with flat SWR from 80 to 10m. Yes I have the 80m coil fitted. I've worked VK, ZL, ZS just to mention a few and of course the North and South America. This is one fantastic antenna if you are stuck for room in your garden. I've also camouflaged my antenna with tape and placed in trees.
I've run 26 radials as it is ground mounted.
I read that some have had arcing issues with the 80m coil. It is very important due to the high voltage, that the nylon mast support plate is fitted correctly as this can happen. So in the years I have been operating this Mk IV version it has been flawless, and I take my hat off to SteppIR for another excellent product. Don't get me wrong, it will never out perform my 3 element SteppIR from the past but it would give it a good run for the money.
Yes is it expensive, but you get what you pay for. You need to remember you are getting 10 bands with one antenna. Full quarter wave on 40 to 17m and three quarter wave from 15m to 6m. You add that up without traps and you have one hell of an antenna for the money.
I would seriously recommend to anyone with limited space.
73. |
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| KQ4KK |
Rating: |
2021-01-02 | |
| YES, a no brainer 11 years |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
11 Year update-
After installing KC8MMZ Stepir, I then bought one with a 80m coil. Installed in the back among the trees because of the HOA. Put down 32 radials.
From the start, I was using about 1000 watts. For the past 2 years a 1500 watt amp. Working great, no issues. Swr on all bands basically flat.
Since then, I have helped install 2 others that are working great. I should order the new shrink tubing/boot kit and upgrade it, but seems to currently not need it. Lawn aerating company cut the control cable to the 80m coil. Repaired that, and buried the cable farther down.
Summer 2008-
I've spent the last 3 days with my friend Mike, KC8MMZ installing and using his SteppIR Big Vertical. Great!!
Installed 20+ radials, ground mounted, with a DX Engineering base plate. Stuck the 2' pipe in 60lbs on cement. He also added the 80 meter coil, that came premounted. He also got the ICOM remote control cable.
Fired it up, did the calibate adjustment, overall. 1 to 1, FLAT on 40m. 1.2 on 80m, 1.2 on 15 and 16m. 1.4 on 20m. Put a message on the SteppIR reflector, "fix" for the 20m "high swr" was to adjust the length of the tape for 20m. EASY to do. With window of the SteppIR controller showing 14.200, I checked with a MFJ analyser that the 1.1 freq was at 13.6mhz. So, went into the controller setup ADD/Adjust and shorten the tape so the 1 to 1 was nearer 14.2mhz.
Oh, yea, it does work great as a antenna. The noise is less than I expected, and seemed to work as good as his dedicated 40 and 80m dipoles.
I will get one of these, when I move to a less than friendly HOA. But, I will have to order early..... takes awhile to get delivered. |
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| Kenneth Hendrickson |
Rating:  |
2021-01-02 | |
| Arcs on 80m w/ High Power |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
This antenna cannot live up to the marketing hype, which promises full legal-limit power on 80m. It arcs.
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| KD0FPY |
Rating: |
2020-06-29 | |
| A great alternative for the fan-dipole addict |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I only use resonant antennas, and up to this point, never bought a commercial antenna. I would build complex multiband dipole antennas and fight tuning for hours. Then the wind would swing a treebranch and snap them. No more.
The product, (just the antenna, not the 80M coil) works exactly as advertised. I have it in an elevated configuration on the roof of my house, clear of trees. Radials are covert in the attic. It loads and does an excellent job on all bands 40-6(3/4). I work a lot of dx on 80 watts but tend to miss what's close in on 20M (less than 700 miles). I will update on longevity in the future. Since this is a mark 4 and many tweaks have been made to the design over the years and a lot of other reviews are for earlier revisions. If you want it to perform, take time getting your radials right. Good engineering at home will result in clean low-swr transmission. As with any vertical, local noise is a factor. Instructions could use an overhaul, they just aren't quite clear enough. I had to re-assemble a few times during the dry-fit process. |
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| M6LDZ |
Rating: |
2019-02-14 | |
| Dissapointing 80m coil issues still |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Froom my last post I have taken the faulty coil apart and chooped out the seciton that has arced and put it back tgether.
It worked ok for a couple of months but again when working sub 300W on 80m it has burned itself out again leaving me no 80m useability. The boys at the factory were not able to offer any sollutions and the cost and the shipping for a new pcb was nuts.
I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that 80m and the steppir vertical are not suited tio each other. At least at at my QTH. And this is so dissapointing after the great experience I have had with the DB11.
I will have one more go at trying to get it working but after that I will be swapping it for a spider pole with 40 and 80m elements whcih will have no coils to burn out.
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| WB6YZZ |
Rating: |
2018-12-25 | |
| Good concept, but... |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
I'd like to rate it higher, because it is a terrific concept, and it is well built. But the issues drag it down some.
Pros:
Nothing else like it – a resonant antenna at all frequencies at the end of your coax.
Can track the frequency of your transceiver automatically with RS-232.
You could “create/modify” the antenna for any frequency within its range (SWL).
Cons:
Propensity of the driver chips to burn out. There’s 4 of them – one for each element – no documentation on which is for the vertical only. Why not fuse the leads instead?
Manual is written for their beams not the vertical. Confusing to use for the vertical. I’d actually say unacceptable.
The 80M option coil manual was written for an earlier model of the controller, so nearly useless again.
Given how long the product has been selling, there’s no excuse for not updating the manuals.
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|
| E72U |
Rating: |
2015-08-12 | |
| I doubt I would have bought this ANT again |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I am living in very populated and lowermost part of city (ASL ~90m) with individual houses and very small yards, so there is no space for towers, beams, nor long wire antennas,
WX conditions here are continental climate, winters with moderate snowfall, and temps rarely below 0 degrees Celsius, summers with usual temps between 20-30 dgs C,
I was impressed by the Steppir idea of variable length of antenna, and I bought Steppir BiggIR MKIII with 80m Coil and External Balun in 2008 (got a old antenna controller, not SDA100 which they sell today),
Mounted it on the roof of my house, some 12m over ground, with 18 quarters-wave radials (9 pairs, one pair for each band 6-80m, I needed to install and 10th pair for 75m but no space available, it works in SSB part of band somehow using AT of my FT2K),
This antenna is perfect optimum for available space I have,
I am satisfied with its performances too, specially in TX (using just 100W in CW/SSB, and 50W in digital modes), RX side is not great, but usable (problem with verticals in general),
I done a lot of DXes on 80m where it is just eights-wave long (almost 150 DXCC countries), as well as more than 60 DXCC countries on 6m (mostly EU), best DX results I made on 30-40 bands, as well on 15m band (using three quarters-wave mode on 15m and upper bands),
On the other side, I'm pretty disappointed with electrical and mechanical design of antenna and lack of robustness,
Problems I had in last 7 years:
1. Y2008 - antenna controller - driver chips burned - Steppir change them under warranty with no cost for me, but I had to pay shipping costs which were abt $200,
2. Y2012 - Plastic spindle between shaft of a step motor and a rotary traction part was broken inside EHU, and controller chips burned again - repaired with help of OC E74OW who is great mechanic, and E71DX who is great electronics engineer, and of course Steppir email support,
3. Y2015 - broken core inside balun - probably water entered, frozen and broke the core, core changed,
That I may be mounted it on the ground level, I might have not all these problems, or make them easier to solve, but on the other hand, given the proximity of nearby houses, would have worse performance and interference problems,
Scarce documentation, but good email support,
Pretty expensive, especially for us living very far away from USA,
I doubt I would have bought this ANT again, antennas such as Butternut HF9V are much cheaper and much easier to maintain,
I do not believe that the difference in performances is worth so much effort into maintaining and such wide differences in price,
73, Vedo E72U. |
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| KD0ZV |
Rating: |
2015-04-03 | |
| Except for the manual. |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I have to admit before this antenna ever left the garage to be installed I had intended to drop my review to 4/5 because of the poorest written manual I have ran across in recent years. It is filled with errors, hard to follow directions and a multitude of other issues. If the performance of the antenna was not what I expected I would have dropped my review even lower. However, the performance of the antenna panned out AND the support of Jim at SteppIR (K4DLI) was so far above and beyond that I decided to forgive the awful documentation and give the product a 5/5.
I opted for the 80 meter coil add-on and the PTT lockout board for the controller. The $90 price on the PTT lockout is ridiculous and with a little intelligent engineering SteppIR should be able to incorporate that as standard for about $2.00.
The performance of the antenna is excellent on most bands. Surprisingly the 80 meter performance is not bad. Its not going to run with a 1/2 wave dipole in most instances however if you are confined to a city lot or have covenants this will easily get you on 80 and do a decent job.
On the other end of the spectrum is 6 meters. I don't see where this will ever be a contender there. In the 1/4 wave mode with the 80 meter add-on the copper tape is only about 20" extended. So doubt you are going much of a signal out with that. In the 3/4 wavelength mode the copper tape extends to about 105" in my installation so that might work a little bit better.
I also have a zero-five 43' vertical that I never installed. A zero-five along with a remote tuner might be a better choice for some people except you are limited on power.
The BigIR performance on 10-40 is top notch.
So despite the crappy manual (and website) I would highly recommend the antenna. Just be advised the manuals are poorly written and the documentation you receive for the controller is old and outdated and you wont figure it out without making a phone call. Hopefully SteppIR will resolve this. |
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| W5CRY |
Rating: |
2013-11-30 | |
| 5 Year Maintenance |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
With the kind assistance of NJ5N we pulled down the BigIR Vertical today after five (5) years of perfect operation.
Opening the EHU it was clean as a whistle, not one drop of water or spider web was found. Replaced gasket and added the "optional" Wind Brace.
I had long wondered about the endurance of the EHU case with all the stress from 40 feet of antenna swaying in the wind, no cracks or problems were found.
Repainted the upper telescopic portion with Krylon Fusion green, recommended by SteppIR and replaced the tape with the new Heat Shrink sleeving.
Added the new Boots at the bottom and base of the telescopic section and stood the BigIR back up.
Backing working as always and hopefully for another five (5) years.
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Earlier 5-star review posted by W5CRY on 2013-10-21
My SteppIR Big IR Vertical is now five (5) years old.
It has provided excellent service with never one second of problems.
The upper sections are turning white from sun exposure, so I just ordered a new gasket for the EHU, sealing tape (now shrink tubing), top rain cap and will be taking it down for maintenance and some paint in the next week or two.
I have some concerns when winds came up as it does sway quite a bit, it is un-guyed, but so far no problems.
I am curious to see what the inside of the EHU looks like, hopefully it has survived in good condition.
So far--So Good, the antenna has met or exceeded my expectations.
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Earlier 5-star review posted by W5CRY on 2009-10-10
This is a follow up report on the BigIR Vertical.
The antenna has been in service at my QTH for approximately
18 months now with thirty two (32) thirty foot radials, ground mounted.
There has not been one moments problem with the antenna and the SWR's have remained very low. The ease of changing bands is outstanding. I do not have the 80 meter coil.
Most pleased with the operation and contacts made to date and would recommend this antenna to anyone dealing with HOA restrictions. |
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