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Pagosa Springs, Colorado |
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The kit arrived in two boxes, one full of smaller parts and tons of shipping peanuts, and the other box contained the additional tubes required for the longer elements.
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The next step in the project was to count all the parts to be sure that they were included. After wading through all the shipping peanuts, opening the bags, sorting
them into plastic containers, I discovered that the chip puller mentioned in the installation instructions for modifying the controller was missing. It wasn't until later when I was
putting the parts on the antenna that I discovered many other problems with parts. It turns out that the assembly manual I was given was for the THREE element SteppIR,
not the 4 element. That was a bad sign of things to come.
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The first thing I did was to extend the fiberglass tubes to the 213 inch length specified. That I was able to do in my garage. I marked the length with tape, then extended each tube to see how close they were. It turns out that some were easily extended beyond that mark, while others needed a little coaxing. Eventually, I found a compromise that resulted in all of them being fairly close - SteppIR says within plus or minus one inch will work. There was sufficient tape to tape the joints without any problem. | |
I decided to change out the chip in the controller next, since I had to unplug it from the cable anyway. After opening it up (easily done) and getting set to swap out the firmware chip, I discovered that the chip puller referenced in the instructions wasn't included in the box of parts. Pagosa Springs is a small town and there is no electronics parts store where you can buy one. Radio Shack has a small operation here but doesn't cater to that section of the market. I discovered I had an old tool resembling an ice pick that would work, and eventually, carefully, and slowly, removed the chip and replaced it. | |
Continued on the next page. |