SteppIR 2 Element Yagi, Instruction Manual

Page 1: ...ion Manual for the 2 3 4 Element Yagi Patent 6 677 914 Yagi Dipole Vertical Rev Q 01 16 08 SteppIR Antennas 2112 116th Ave NE Suite 2 5 Bellevue WA 98004 Tel 425 453 1910 Fax 425 462 4415 Tech Support 425 891 6134 www steppir com ...

Page 2: ...lement Support Tube EHU Element Housing Unit FTP Fiberglass Telescoping Pole QDB Quick Disconnect Boots rubber ERT Element Return Tube SteppIR Antenna Information Web Sites as of 8 03 06 http steppir com http groups yahoo com group steppir FTP QDB ERT EHU EST ...

Page 3: ... sized dipole whose impedance is very much dependant on the height above ground so there is a varying degree of mismatch Below 40 feet or so you will find the SWR as high as 2 6 1 but at greater heights it can drop to as low as 1 6 1 SWR This small amount of mismatch can easily be handled by the internal tuners on most trans ceivers At 10 MHz SWR values in this range result in insignificant loss s...

Page 4: ...SteppIR Antennas 40m 30m Dipole Kit 4 Boom Element Housing Unit Element Support Tube Stepper Drive Motor Copper Beryllium Tape Element Return Tube ...

Page 5: ...2 Install the Element Housing Unit 14 Install CPVC Liner Tubes 14 Prepare the Fiberglass Telescoping Poles FTP 16 Assemble the Sweeps to the Poles 18 Attach the 40 30 EST s to the EST ERT 21 Antenna Layout Drawing 2 Element 22 3 Element 23 4 Element 23 New Antenna Specifications 24 Appendix A 6m Passive Early 3 Element Reconfiguration 25 Appendix B Controller Upgrade 26 Appendix C CPU Firmware chi...

Page 6: ...2 X 7 8 PANHEAD SCREWS 16 60 0014 6 32 NYLOK NUT 4 60 0014 4 40 X 3 4 PANHEAD SCREW 8 60 0021 01 4 40 X 5 8 PANHEAD SCREW 12 60 0022 4 40 NYLOK NUT 2 60 0003 1 3 4 U BOLT W SADDLES 2 60 0093 5 16 X 2 3 4 BOLTS 6 60 0046 5 16 NYLOK NUTS 7 60 0019 10 32 NYLOK NUTS 2 60 0091 1 4 20 X 3 3 4 BOLT 4 Element Retrofit Only 2 60 0030 1 4 NYLOK NUT 4 Element Retrofit Only 8 60 0041 1 4 FLAT WASHER 4 Element...

Page 7: ...the two fiberglass telescoping poles FTPs from the driven element housing Drawing 1 3 or 5 Remove the driven element housing EHU unit from its mounting plate Drawing 1 3 or 5 Note For customers who purchased a 3 element antenna before March 2003 your element housing brackets may have been of a different design If you have the original style element housing bracket approximately 4 1 4 across the to...

Page 8: ...SteppIR Antennas 40m 30m Dipole Kit 8 REMOVE Driven FTPs EHU Reflector Driven Director 3 Element 20m 6m Drawing 3 Director Driven Reflector New 40m 30m Dipole Loop 3 Element 40m 6m Drawing 4 ...

Page 9: ... Antennas 40m 30m Dipole Kit 9 4 Element 40m 6m New 40m 30m Dipole Loop Director 2 Director 1 Driven Reflector Drawing 6 REMOVE Driven FTPs EHU Reflector Director 2 Director 1 Driven 4 Element 20m 6m Drawing 5 ...

Page 10: ...illing to produce a clean round hole It may be helpful to drill both holes for one bolt and then install that bolt providing more positive alignment for the second hole Install the two 5 16 bolts with Nylok nuts tighten These bolts should fit as snug as possible in the holes Note For the 2 element boom only you will need to move the mast plate from its original position in the center of the boom t...

Page 11: ...securely and safer Picture 2 B The sad dles will need to be pressed on securely or tapped on with a hammer until they bottom out Measure the return tube offset to match the offset of the driven ele ment housing tube Drawing 10 Tighten the U bolts securely SteppIR Antennas 40m 30m Dipole Kit 11 84 00 114 00 186 50 42 50 67 50 46 25 25 00 42 50 67 50 46 25 72 00 Reflector Return Driven Director 1 Di...

Page 12: ...t from the Director 2 element mounting bracket and in stall it back into its hole from the other side of the bracket This will support the bracket while you remove the second bolt Remove the second 1 4 bolts from the Director 2 element mounting bracket Put two 1 4 flat washers on each of the new 1 4 20 x 3 3 4 bolts Position the first counter weight by lining up the holes so that the end of the we...

Page 13: ...m Dipole Kit 13 Picture 3B 4 Element Counter Weight Assembled for the 40m 30m Dipole Option Director 2 Element Mounting Bracket Counter Weight Bars Installed Picture 3A Director 2 Element Mounting Bracket Counter Weight Bar 2 ...

Page 14: ...ng three bolts do not pass through the aluminum element plate but be sure they are tight also Note With a retrofit installation this is the point where you want to reconnect the control cable and run the Test Motors procedure outlined in the main antenna installation manual to verify the wiring is correct and eve rything is functioning before final assembly Installing CPVC Liner Tubes Locate Four ...

Page 15: ...o allow for gluing to the CPVC in the element housing as shown in Drawing 11 Note It may take a number of attempts to get the CPVC liner tube to go past the second section of the Fiberglass Telescoping Pole allowing it to go in all the way Drawing 11 Gently shaking the CPVC can be helpful Take your time and be careful with it Then you will glue the CPVC extension tube to the internal CPVC of the d...

Page 16: ...ll length by jerking each section out very aggressively with a twisting motion until it is extended as far as possible Each segment is tapered and should lock jam se curely in place when fully extended It is especially important on the 40 30 driven element that the poles are very firmly tele scoped You don t want them potentially twisting out of level in the wind that would not look good Each pole...

Page 17: ...ith reinforcing rings the tape must continue further so it extends a minimum of one full tape width beyond the metal ring and onto the fiberglass pole Start the tape with one complete wrap of electrical tape around the fiberglass telescoping pole The tape should be applied in half lapped layers with sufficient tension to produce a uniform wind for most applications this tension will reduce the tap...

Page 18: ...rn loop fitting to grab on to Get one of the sweep assemblies making sure the label THIS WAY UP is on top Picture 19 and the drain holes in the tip of the loop are to the bottom Insert one of the pole tips into each of the sweep fittings Picture 25 making sure that they go in until they bottom out approximately 2 3 8 The non skid tape should go completely inside the fitting Picture 27 It may be a ...

Page 19: ...me Be careful not to damage the O ring seal or the non skid tape when inserting the poles Now insert one of the white fiberglass rods one end into each fitting Picture 26 29 into the assembly and line up the holes Repeat this procedure for the other side Picture 27 is a cut away to show the position of the pole tip and its components as they fit together inside the sweep fitting Pole Cut Away View...

Page 20: ...rglass rod you may need to screw it in with a screw driver to get it to go through Again observe the correct side of the fitting to place the nuts Now tighten all the screws Note You may need to hold the nut down in the pocket with your finger when you first be gin tightening each screw When both return loop assemblies are properly mounted to the ends of the fiberglass tele scoping poles the two r...

Page 21: ... important to ensure that the butt large end of each fiberglass telescoping pole firmly bottoms out is seated inside the driven element EST On the element return tube ERT the pole FTP may be adjusted in or out a small amount to get the tips of the two poles even where the sweep is attached Picture 27 just make sure the black raised ring on the FTP is covered by the rubber boot Push each rubber boo...

Page 22: ...ble checking that all connections are made and fittings are properly tightened the assembly of the 40m 30m dipole section is complete If this is a retrofit kit it is time to mount the antenna otherwise return to the main assembly manual Picture 19 Electrical Tape Optional 6mPassive 114in Long Director Driven 57in 22 in F romc e n te r o f drive n e le m e n t to c e n te r o f 6m p as siv e e le m...

Page 23: ...t to scale Boom Mast Plate Mast 40m 30m Return Mounting Plate 30 in From center of driven elem ent to center of return elem ent Drawing 17 2 2 4 4 1 1 Splice Splice Splice Optional 6m Passive 110 5 in Long Director 2 Driven Return 4 Element Yagi Spacing and Installation Layout not to scale Mast Mast Plate 40m 30m Return Mounting Plate Director 1 Reflector 84 0 114 0 182 0 30 0 43 0 69 0 5 5 Splice...

Page 24: ...n 3000 Watts Key Down Boom Length 57 in 1 44 m 16 ft 4 87 m 32 ft 9 75 m Boom Diameter 1 75 in 4 5 cm 1 75 in 4 5 cm 2 50 1 75 in 6 35 4 5 cm Mast Diameter 2 0 in 5 08 cm 2 0 in 5 08 cm 2 0 in 5 08 cm Frequency Coverage 40m 6m Continuous 40m 6m Continuous 40m 6m Continuous Turning Radius 18 15 ft 5 53 m 19 7 ft 6 m 24 1 ft 7 35 m Cable Requirements 12 conductor 22 AWG shielded 12 conductor 22 AWG ...

Page 25: ...the 6m element should be 31 from the center of the driven element Drawings 17 This change also necessitated adding 2 to each side of the aluminum element for a total of 112 from tip to tip The beam still works very well and without the mental gymnastics of keeping track of your real direction on 6 meters The 6m element has enough 3 8 tubing inside to extend it to the new length of 112 inches All y...

Page 26: ...ler dis play Picture A when you first turn it on If your controller does not have a 40m band but ton you will need to install the provided label to properly identify the band buttons for the new firmware Look over the software options carefully the frequency offset will need to be adjusted in most cases to center your antenna with the new firmware Remember to enable the 40 30 option in the menu In...

Page 27: ... the stops flashing Power off and unplug the controller Remove the controller top cover Picture 1 Remove four Phillips head screws two on each side Remove the 2 jack screws from the 25 pin D sub connector and 4 jack screws from the 2 9 pin D sub connectors if you have the interface option on your controller Remove the nut and lock washer from the ground stud on the back of the controller Lift the ...

Page 28: ...ully pull the chip out of its socket The tiny claws on the extractor fit at the chip corners and hook under the chip Gently pull the chip upwards rocking slightly as necessary until it is free Caution Using any other tool to remove the chip may damage the pins on the chip Align the arrow on the replacement chip to the arrow in the chip socket Picture 4 CPU chip Replacement Procedures 28 ...

Page 29: ...n the socket and press the chip down vertically with your thumb Picture 5 Press evenly until the chip is firmly seated on all sides Reinstall the driver board to the display board Picture 1 Reassemble the controller cover CPU chip Replacement Procedures 29 ...

Page 30: ...l SWR correction Made it possible to program a single button for the Home position Added 40 30 Dipole selection Amateur Mode When the controller is in the Amateur Mode the band buttons 20M 6M 1 through 6 are pre programmed to get the antenna close to the desired frequency On the larger bands the buttons have several presets in the band which the controller will cycle through each time the band but...

Page 31: ...ce the the only sure indication this mode is active will be some of the band LEDs lighting LED 5 will always light Also since we have 2 different boxes we will refer to the Band buttons as 1 through 6 with 1 being the 20M or 40 30M button on the far left 1 Driven Element Offset Band button 1 works with the 2 band button Ad just the Driven element to Correct for feed point interactions Each time th...

Page 32: ...s is a global adjustment to all bands and is based on a per cent of frequency The number is for reference only and does not scale di rectly When making this adjustment it is possible to move off the best per formance point so some experimentation may be necessary to find the best value The changes made in this menu will be saved when the controller power is switched off or after about 3 minutes So...

Page 33: ...hose built into transceivers can give incorrect readings both higher and lower than reality They also can be drastically affected by the length of the coax line Removing a few feet of line can cause drastic differences in the reading ranging from 10 to as much as 100 Directional couplers such as the Bird watt meter or antenna analyzers are much more reliable Make sure you really have a problem bef...

Page 34: ...es it so difficult to diagnose problems and why we emphasis building and wiring the antenna carefully In our experience an SWR of 1 4 1 or less is normal In most cases the lowest SWR will not be at the same frequency as the best performance This is because we have optimized the antenna for performance first SWR second If the problem is with the driven element the SWR can be very high over 3 1 and ...

Page 35: ...n D sub control cable connector from the controller Hold it so you are looking at the pins with them pointing at you Orient the connector so the row with 13 pins is on top now the upper left hand pin is pin 1 You should read between about 18 ohms to 30 ohms depending on cable length between the pins listed below 100 is about 23 ohms The Dipole has a driven only Pin Numbers Driven 1 2 20 ohms appro...

Page 36: ... mean it is wired correctly You could still have swapped two elements or even wired the whole thing backwards started at the wrong end of the terminal strip and it will still measure correctly because each connector pair has a motor winding connected to it but it is the wrong one This test just takes you to the next step of try ing to determine if the antenna is wired correctly and then finally de...

Page 37: ...to correct the wiring One or More Elements are not Moving If the driven is not moving you will have very high SWR at all frequencies However it may have stopped at some length and you might have good SWR only at one particular frequency Set the controller to 14 200 Mhz and monitor the SWR at that frequency Next go into the Create Modify mode and vary each element length and monitor the SWR while y...

Page 38: ...lack o Black o Red o Green o Green Normal o Red Driver Board Damaged o White o White o Red o Black o Green Backwards o White o White o Green o Red Backwards o Black o Red o Black o White Normal o Green If the driven is wired backwards when you first command the antenna to go to a specific band the driven tries to go in retract and it can t so you hear no signal unless it is an S9 signal and the SW...

Page 39: ...e two quick disconnect rubber boots securing the fiberglass tele scoping poles Remove the two fiberglass telescoping poles FTPs from the driven element housing Remove the driven element housing unit from its mounting bracket Remove the driven element housing mounting bracket from the boom Install the New Element Mounting Bracket Drilling instructions Measure mark the boom to install the new bracke...

Page 40: ...ket B Current Production Bracket Figure 3 48 00 50 25 48 00 4 25 Make both 2 end sections like this 8 splice 1 4 20 x 2 1 4 Bolt Make Section with return bracket like this Make Center section like this 10 1018 01 10 1017 21 10 1020 01 48 00 48 00 2 25 94 0 102 5 25 00 30 00 Figure 1 Note In this drawing you are looking down on the boom so that the element housings would be up ...

Page 41: ...cally void if the following occurs improper installation unauthorized modifications physical abuse or damage from severe weather beyond the manufacturer s control Manufacturer s responsibility is strictly limited to repair or replacement of defective components The shipping instructions will be issued to the buyer for defective components and shipping charges will be paid for by the buyer to the m...

Page 42: ...Yagi Dipole Vertical www steppir com 40m 30m Dipole Option ...