In late of 2007 I decided to change the 3 el Cushcraft with a 3 el steppir.
With my friend Dimitris (SV1OZ) we bought from the factory two indentical
3 el steppir antennas. We both installed them in the Springtime of 2008.
The installation according to instructions maual was easy and the performance
was great
But after one month both we experienced a serius problem. One of the element
stoped moving (Me the director and my friend the reflector)
The problem is the very cheep plastic shaft in the motor. We examined all the
plastic shafts and really all they had cracks. Sooner or later all the three elements
should stop to moving.
We made in a machine shop new shafts by a plastic material called "acetal" and
we replaced all the shafts.
Also the contacts to the copper strip are not smooth. They had burs and we
smoothen them by a file (I include two fotos).
Finally although the idea and the performance of this antenna is great it has a
very poor mechanical engineering
I include some fotos to help other guys to solve this problem
