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-- All bands from 40 to 6 meters with one coaxial cable
Continued........
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After a very long day, I was tired and getting a bit frustrated. The sum of all the small issues I had to deal with was growing old. Parts that were not correct, missing, and
as it would soon turn out, made to fit a different bolt pattern could easily have been eliminated by the factory before they shipped the kit. The next step was to install the
counterweights.
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| To mount the weights, I rotated the antenna so the director was pointing down. It turns out that the bolt holes on the counterweights were spaced about 1/4 inch too far apart to match the bolt pattern of the director's mounting bracket where they are attached. After discovering that, I made a phone call to the factory and left a message - they were closed over the weekend. I had to rant. Moving on, I ended up having to clamp the brackets in place and drill two holes to accept larger bolts before I could install the weights. |
| That finished the installation. Time for the tower to go back in the air. In anticipation of now being able to operate on all bands from 40 meters through 6 meters, the frustration was dissipating. This was also the time I was wondering why I didn't get a motorized tower! |
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| OK - it's finished, up in the air, only one knuckle busted, and all limbs and digits are intact. Time to go check out the performance! |
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I had to reset the controller for my radio and baud rate since the firmware chip was replaced. After enabling the 40/30 meter addition on the controller by pressing and holding the Select button for 3 seconds, then pressing "Button 4", and telling the controller I have the 6 meter passive elements by pressing "Button #3" (as explained in the on-line PDF manual), I was ready to go.
I fired up the rig, and set the SWR meter to check the new addition. I tuned to the 30 meter band, and the controller sent the Cu/Be element racing down the fiberglass
tubes. Then I switched to 40 meters and checked. The results:
30 Meters 1.5:1 Not bad!
40 Meters 1:1 Great!
Hey - the frustrations were fading further away! But I could literally see one potential problem...........
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One concern I have, as will those who live in snow country or experience high/gusty winds, is that the added elements SAG quite a bit...and that's without having any snow or ice on them. It would seem fairly easy to install a small truss system that would help keep the elements level and take some of the weight off the ends.
SteppIR has finally started marketing a truss which is almost identical to mine to ease the concerns of those who live in the mountains, wherever it snows or there are ice storms and high/gusty winds. Way to go SteppIR! (They finally sent me a SteppIR hat as a "thank you"!)
Continued on the next page. Back to the previous page. |