Yep it's all true, this is what makes or breaks you, the antenna.
This is probably the least expensive tri-bander on the market. It does a wonderful job for the money.
The antenna and supporting structure can often times be the most expensive part of building a ham station. I am very proud of just how little I spent on this 23 meter (75 feet) tower, rotor, guying materials, and antenna. The only parts of this installation that were new are the antenna, the thrust bearing, and the short flat top section, I doubt I have $1000 in this installation. Little deals like a rotor from Ebay for 100 bucks, an A4S NIB sitting in a garage picked up for $350. And of course good ol Bill K4XS for the used tower sections, like new, met me on I-95 to avoid shipping costs. You can get an antenna up there for low costs if you try. Find the right house newly purchased with an abandoned tower (YES they do exist I have taken down many) and many times not only will they give you the tower, in many cases they will PAY you to take that ugly tower off their property.
My Carolina Windom 80
I am finally on 160 as of April 5th 2006, after 28 years I am QRV and the success of the lame antenna I have is quite nice and it's been up for many years at this QTH. I shorted out the end of the CW80 and fed it on the long wire connection of the tuner, it tunes wonderfully as a 1/4 long wire is I guess what it is, in 2 nights I worked 8 countries worked under the worst of conditions in April, S51, OM2, DJ8, IT9, G3, F6, CM6 and the USA, it does count after all, I have maybe 8 States as well including California, I would love to have seen this antenna under the winter conditions when things were quieter. I bet it would hear well considering what I have seen so far. I hope to have something better by next season, but if not, I have something I can work more than just a little close in stuff with, seriously I think with a little power one might could get DXCC with this setup. There are a lot of countries in the areas I have worked barefoot under noisy spring conditions, if you have a CW80 and a desire to work 160 you have all need in place.
Well I picked up a VE1 and HB9 along with one more G and I and DL on the third night of using this "dummy load" antenna. but the noise is worse every day so it's over till fall. This was my first EQSL I received from a 160 meter QSO, from California, this antenna works nicely, I still hope to get something better for the coming fall but this sure is a lot better than my previous antenna, nothing.
On the bands it was designed for......
The Carolina Windom 80 is a real antenna. Many people make light of this antenna I think mostly due to the wild claims made on their web-site. But this antenna (the 1st and only wire antenna I have ever purchased) is the real deal. I was looking for one antenna that would perform equal to or better than a dipole on all the bands the A4S didn't cover, this indeed fills the bill.
It's an off-center fed half wave on 80 meters, there is a 22 foot long vertical radiator that connects to the feed-point on the 1/2 wave length element, then you connect your RG-8 or 213 to the tuner. This vertical element obviously gives vertical components to the signal that help on the low angle DX, Some of the things I have done on 75 SSB should not be done. Rarely do I call more than once or twice, Peter I was no problem on all the bands, in fact I worked them on 80/40/30/18/24 on both SSB and CW on the windom. As far as power, a modest SB220, I wasn't even able to cheat like the Alpha and Commander boys were doing ;-)
On the WARC bands I don't run the SSB hi B+ due to the fact that the voltages around the band switch are dangerously high, in the lower E CW position it's a lot safer, so I was in lo power on 18 and 24Mhz working one of the biggest pileups in recent history on a wire on bands where the majority now run beams, and no waiting in line at all.
As well the P5 in North Korea was worked on 15 meters on the Windom, that was before the tower was completed. I was using an Amp Supply LK500 (a pair of 3-500's) at around 1200 watts and the windom and worked him on the 1st call. Call it luck or whatever, but it would take forever to tell you the times I have cracked big pileups with this antenna, and I give this antenna the majority of the credit, sure the amp helps, but I have had a lot of wire in 28 years of hamming, and the only thing I have had that competes with this was a full wave delta loop on 75 meters some 90 feet up to the top.
If I had the money to blow, I would keep a Carolina Windom 80 in a drawer just in case some storm tears all my stuff down, I could be back on the air on with a decent signal on all bands in minutes.
The internal antenna tuner in any of the rigs out there is plenty enough to tune this antenna, it's flat 1 to 1 on 80 CW, and on 40 Phone it's less than 1.4 to one without a tuner, and everywhere else it ranges from 2 to 1 thru it's highest's of about 3 to 1 on 30 meters. So if you are not using a linear amplifier, you don't even have to invest in a tuner if you have an internal tuner in your rig, if you don't and you don't intend to getting an amp, the little LDG tuners like the Z-100 do a great job too for not a lot of money. I used a Z-100 with my TS430 mostly to fine-tune the amps inputs on the WARC bands, but it tuned the CW80 with no trouble at all.
Try one, you'll love it
Get one here
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