SteppIR 3 Element Troubleshooting Manual

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The antenna is out of calibration, perform the calibration as described in the manual.
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The factory defaults have been inadvertently changed, reset factory defaults "all". There are two default
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modes, "all" and "current". "Current" only resets the band segment you are currently on.
The control cable is mis-wired.
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Interaction between power lines, other antennas, metal roofs, house wiring, gutters, etc, and the antenna.
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The automatic tuner is enabled on your rig, your linear or your external tuner that is in line.
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Your antenna selector is on the wrong antenna
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Your rig is in the split mode and worse case, to a different band!
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A low pass filter is in line and 6 meters has very high SWR.
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Your in-line linear has a transmit / receive switch some of which may be poorly designed or faulty. This
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can make the SWR give incorrect higher readings. Remove as many things in-line on the coax as possible
so you get a more accurate SWR reading.
Low cost SWR meters, especially those built into transceivers, can give incorrect readings, both higher and
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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 before you hit the panic button.
Blown driver board from shorting the control cable with power plugged into the controller. Even with the
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power button pushed "off" the cable is energized.
Broken or damaged control cable or connector. See Cable Problems section.
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Bad coax or coax connector.
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Damaged driver board is pulling power supply voltage down causing the microprocessor to malfunction.
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Check to see if the green LED is lit on power supply
Ground the controller, this prevents crashes of the microprocessor and provides a path for static discharge.
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3 & 4 Element Troubleshooting Guide

The Most Common Problems

(read this first!)
1 of 5