Terry:

What you are saying here is rather disturbing.

Once we loose some more of our snow cover, and the weather gets a bit 
warmer, I'll have someone help me troubleshoot the situation with my 
Carolina Windom 160 Compact.

What you describe might have happened to me, although I can't be sure yet.

All I know is that, several days before my feedline  failure, we had a 
blizzard with very heavy snow and high winds.

Could you write me off list, please, so that we can continue to compare 
notes?

My most immediate questions are:

1.  Did you purchase both of your antennas from Radioworks?

2.  Did you get denials of the problem for both antennas?  I ask this 
because I got a similar "I never heard of that kind of thing happening" 
statement from the guy at Radio Works.  He seemed sincere, in that he 
promised to help me address the problem once I gave him more info, but now, 
I'm beginning to wonder.

Please e-mail me at:

[log in to unmask]

My attempt is not to bash anyone here, but rather, to get to the bottom of 
the problem I'm now having.  The more info the better.

Thanks, Terry.

73 from Tom Behler:  KB8TYJ

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Terry Robinson" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, March 03, 2011 4:01 AM
Subject: Re: Carolina Windom Continued


Hi Tom,

It was at least I who reported that Carolina Windoms tended to take on =
water.

I had terrible trouble with two of these things and received denials =
from the vendor. Words like "no-one else has had any problems" kept =
being thrown at me. So I gave up.

This was despite extensive efforts to seal the obvious holes in the =
casing of the balun plus the point where the vertical coax entered the =
matching unit.

As I recall, after some years, the instructions told you to seal the =
point of entry for the vertical radiator, though as this was already =
assembeled, I failed to see why it wasn't properly sealed in the first =
place.

On Questioning the matter of the holes in the balun, where the feed =
wires to the individual legs of the antenna exited the housing, I was =
assured that this didn't matter as the balun was impregnated with =
sealant anyway, so any water ingress wouldn't affect the antenna.

Well, when I put the first one up, it was fine until we had some rain, =
then I could only get about 30 Watts up the thing before the VSWR went =
off the scale!

The second one, I did everything I could to seal all the holes and =
connectors and it took a bit longer for the water to kill that one!

One problem, I think, is that as the antenna flexed in the wind, it bust =
the seals around the feed wires. Again, I assert that, if the thing were =
properly sealed in the first place, this wouldn't have been an issue. We =
should have only needed to seal the coax feeder at the bottom of the =
matching unit.

Well, I gave up at this point and made my own doublet.

It was gratifying to hear, some time later, that a famous British =
amateur, who I won't name, also had this problem, but gave up without =
reporting it. Hence the "no-one else has had this problem" type of =
conversation with the vendor.

I have since bought two baluns from this organisation. A couple of =
friends and I virtually immersed these in Silicon sealant after making =
the anntennas and connecting the feeders. After some time, water still =
got into one, via the holes around the feed points to the antenna legs, =
though the other one has remained intact.

Such has been my experience with these products and I'm not saying =
anything I haven't reported to the supplier in the past.

It's a shame, because the antennas work fine, so long as you can keep =
the water out of them. I leave it to others to work out the best way to =
do that.

Cheers & 73,

Terry, GM3WUX

************************************************************

DESCRIBE ONLINE - IMPROVING ACCESS THROUGH INFORMATION

Terry Robinson B.Sc
82 Albert Rd.
Crosshill
Glasgow
G42 8DR
Tel: 0141 423 2683 - Mobile: 07771 610002
Web: www.describe-online.com



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