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We all have to make compromises and mine is likely to be outside the shack and in the garden. I’d love to get a full size Steppir into the back garden and whilst it’ll fit, it won’t fit if you get what I mean.

My geeky hobby is tolerated by the XYL, but only to a certain point and when planning for a new antenna I’ve looked at loads, from Quads to Wires to Beams and Moxon’s. They are all a change from the vertical I do have, which has performed well but is something I want to move away from in search of a couple of dB in gain.

I’m very keen on my Cobwebb because its compact and works well. But. A beam would be slightly better. Something I’ve not quite got my head round is if a mini beam is worth it. Ask 10 people and you’ll get 10 different answers. We all know they aren’t as good as a dedicated monobander but we all know we need to make sacrifices.

I’ve had a look at a Moseley one that comes complete with lossy traps but hey ho. We all have to make sacrifices.

Manufacturers claims show its not much more than a short dipole on 12m and 17m but may be useful on the others

The turning radius is what I’m most interested in as I need to fit it against the side of the new room but obviously not too close to windows. 3-4m looks ok but I’ll need to check / adjust dims accordingly. Its a lot of money for what it is at around 750 Euro’s from Wimo so its quite an investment.

Only another month or so until the planning application decision comes back. It may not be on the shopping list if the application gets bounced but I’ve no control on that. So for now its all in the planning stages