Antennas:

 

The stepper is a remarkable Antenna. For my working conditions, considering all antennas are a compromise and no antenna is perfect for all conditions, the stepper has continued to impress with its dynamic performance.

I choose the stepper as I wanted to have  have good gain and good front to back on 6 through 20 meters, low profile a Must, dead nuts resonance from 13mhz to 60mhz ( also works as a dipole on 2 meters). I have even use it on 440mhz as a dipole. 

Other Features that became apparent after procurement, ease of installation. with one hand I can bring it up and down a ladder, ease of use in the field ( I have used it in the field Twice once for the tarantula migration and a local mountain top outing). Mechanically the stepper has performed falsely for the past year and 1/2.  after the first assembly and erection, you should be able to assemble the whole thing in about 45 minutes tops.

My stepper is 34 feet above ground and is guyed in a tripod configuration at the top of the 2 second push-up extension.  I had the stepper up for about one year at 28 feet with out guying but this past Novembers wind storm did bend the top about 1.5 feet from center. so I brought it up a few extra feet and guyed it.

 

IF you want performance . you will not be compromising with a non permanent 2el-steppIR configuration !

 

 

other notes about my working conditions.

I am on a vista, looking 387 to 140 deg magnetic, (i use a compass) at 2-wave lengths on 17 mtrs the stepper thinks it is 70 feet tall. I do get some low angel radiation benefit from this phenomena

my elevation is roughly 300 feet above sea level, I am 1km from the Pacific ocean

the  OFC dipole 287deg mag.

Location:

34° 25.31'N, 119° 43.81'W (NAD27)
USGS SANTA BARBARA Quad

 

The 2-meter beam    Always pointed 117 deg

 

As you can se on the map, us folks here in Santa Barbara are blessed with an over the water path to all south coast cities. with this antenna it is possible to work HT's in Redondo beach, san Diego is s-9 on sideband and the occasional treat is working stations in Ensanada or farther south.

VHF DXing, I find this operating fun especially on SSB

 

 remember the horizon is ~ 15 miles, their are about 14 horizon segment from Santa Barbara to san Diego "200 miles"

it is also fun because the fishing fleet (what's left) is always in ear shot on 160mhz and boot leg 2mtr.  I always know where the fish are and where they will be served: yum yum !

 

The Long wire tuner, soon to return to its expedition ready status under my desk ....

UPDATE: the long wire has new life as a 272f + 130f OFC dipole

 272 foot side

 

 

The balun

 

the 130 foot side of the OFC

the 6mtr, 2mtr, 440mhz Vertical "Pictured with the 2mtr beam'

 

 

Other antennas from days gone buy.

The Bush Quad, this poor 4 e-element 2mtr quad is now a humming bird perch. it also has the effect of keeping the neighbor guessing 

From the old QTH:

 

what you don't see is the height of both of these antennas  the center of the Full size G5 is al most 60 feet and the top of the 17mtr loop is just shy of 50 ft.

 

i can tell you this, the loop inspired one of my neighbors to complain to the Santa Barbara city conical. her claim was that my antennas were blocking her good karma and more importantly blocking the creative energy that was being beamed at her from the heavens.  true story !

the g5 was a great introductory antenna for me, at this Qth it worked well on 40 and 80 some times on 20m but was always lackluster on the high bands,

now on the other the 17 mtr loop WoW what a great performing antenna. Quiet !  and Gain in the broadside over a dipole.. many many country's, many a pile up broken with the loop and 300 watts. this loop was feed with 400 Ω ladder line. a small run of coax ( 10 feet) to a radio works 4:1 current blaun.

another funny story; this antenna and feed system worked well on 20 through 10 except on 12 meters. it was very finicky to load. one day I was making a contact with a rare piece of Dx and the darn Balun Caught fire. i did not know it was on fire, until I notice that my swr was helter skelter. my contact was telling me that i had A very bad problem he could not identify. i just could not get the swr under control. so I thought that the loop had fallen down, i peered out the window and to my horror the corner of my balcony was on fire..

moral of the story, don't by cheap baluns !