i saw The Stepp Ir idea the first time a few years ago at the Dayton Hamvention.
It was ...and in my opinion still is.. one of the most clever ideas in antenna design. I monitored the further progress of the antennas, the design, the quality reports etc. over the years... but with our move in 2009 it was the time to start my own experience with the antennas.
I decided to use the DB 18 Dreambeam with the passive 6m element.
The preparation took some time and I want to suggest it also to everybody who wants to have a Stepp-IR:
- use your time to think about the concept
- plan your time to assemble the antenna in a quit place, never do it in a hurry
- learn and understand how it works
- never ever start to work with metric tools, use in any case inch tools
You can find on the web several sources with technical hints and details about the installation of Stepp IR antennas. I decided to bring the pictures with my own experience also online and I hope it will be useful if you decide to install such a great antenna.
I was asked from several sides to do this in German, because a lot of ham fellows here are interested but have some problems with the translation. So the following pages will be bilingual.
For the work on the antennas I want to express my thanks to a few people for their support:
- my old friend Friedhelm, DG6EQ who helped a lot to assemble and test the antenna on the ground
- my friend Mitch, DJ0QN who gave a lot of help and advice to connect the Stepp IR controller to the network and the remote station con troll unit
- my wife and my kids who could not use our backyard because a 8*8 m aluminum / fiberglass monster was sleeping for 3 weeks
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