Ultra Beam (6–40 m)
For a year or two I had been following the work of the Italian antenna manufacturer Ultra Beam. It is clearly very similar in concept to the SteppIR, but what caught my attention was the much stronger boom. The stepper motor also uses a gearbox, which makes the system appear considerably more robust. My friend Robi, HA5NP, ordered the 4-element version covering 40 through 6 m, and I decided to replace my existing SteppIR MonstIR with an Ultra Beam as well.
In operation it turned out that this antenna also has a few weaknesses. As the album photos show, the 5 m telescopic fibreglass poles do not cope well with extreme rime ice. I therefore added an extra guying arrangement, which made the antenna much more stable.
I would also like to see better protection against longitudinal splitting of both the telescopic and fixed fibreglass sections, at least with a metal ring. These are the sort of weaknesses that only become obvious in real-world use. Overall, however, it is a very good-performing, impressive antenna and it looks excellent at 40 m above ground.