Some anecdotal info on use of Steppir antennas on loaded towers. I have never heard of anyone experiencing arcing. This also includes using other antennas with isolated elements (like KLM). There just isn't going to be a potential difference.
I have helped several locals load their towers with Steppirs on them - and nobody has had an issue. ZL3IX uses an original Monster - as do I - on a loaded tower. When I first did mine - I purposely connected the elements at each end of the boom to the boom electrically. This was on a 77 foot tower and I found putting the Steppir on 30 meters yielded a good mach with a gamm up about 45 feet. However, I had one issue that might - or might not - have had anything to do with 160 meter operation. After a few months - both motors at each end of the boom were frozen. This was a mechanical issue. The antenna I put up was used - and had many miles on it - so it is hard to say what was the root cause. I did have some lightning that could have been a contributor - but how connecting the boom to the element would affect the motors is beyond me. After fixing the motors - I decided to home the elements and use a loading wire off the tower of the tower. My new installation doesn't need any loading from the elements - since my tower height is now 97 feet and the boom alone is enough top loading. I still feel your tower is too tall - but we have already talked about that. I do not know if modeling really works for this - but haven't seriously tried it. Tree N6TR/7 Manning, OR On Mon, Dec 10, 2018 at 8:47 AM Kenny Silverman <kenny.k...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi All, we’re planning on gamma loading a 130’ tower with a stack of > StepIR antennas using a cage for the shunt wire. We have modeled the > tower. Question: is the model sufficient to determine the gamma wire > height? Or is the procedure to use a single wire to per the model height > first to find the 50 ohm point and then build the cage to fit the length? > > Also, any tips on shorting the elements on the StepIR dream beam so they > won’t arc? Any anecdotal info on StepIR antennas on the shunted tower? > > Regards , Kenny K2KW > _________________ > Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband > Reflector > _________________ Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
