I am not putting the windom antenna down as a poor antenna.  I just believe
that there was  aproblem with the balun.  I completely tore my station
apart looking for the problem as I was sure it was not the antenna but as
it turned out,the antenna was my problem.  I might give it another try some
day but not for awhile.

-----Original Message-----
From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Colin McDonald
Sent: Monday, March 09, 2015 10:16 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Windom Antenna

I was unable to respond at the time as I was in Australia and able to
receive, but not send emails.
it looks like I'm a day late and a buck short lol.
That said, I have a full sized Carolina windom up here.  It is the model
with the coax that hangs down vertically which adds a vertical aspect to
the radiation patern as well as adds some amount of gain to the antenna.
This is indeed the radio works version, and while the antenna does present
between 2 and 3 to 1 swr on all bands, it seems to work amazingly well for
the configuration it is in.
The 88 foot leg is running east west, then it makes a 90 degree turn and
the
44 foot section runs north south.  The vertical portion hangs down a few
feet and then angles and sweeps down to the feedline coax which is located
about half way back along the 44 foot section and about 10 feet from the
leg of the antenna.  So essentially the coax part of the antenna runs
paralel and below the 44 foot section.
The ends of the antenna are at around 15 or 20 feet, while the balun where
the antenna makes the 90 degree turn is at around 30FT.  The antenna works
very well as a DX antenna.  It is also very close to arial power lines, tv
cable feeds and telephone feeders.  It passes within feet of the 3 wire
drops for those services to my house and the house next door.  The noise
level is not extreme and seems comparable to any other wire antenna
installation short of one that is located on land far away from any noise
sources.  For instance, the noise on 10M is usually around S2, same for
15M, around S3 on 20, and S7 on 40 and 80 which seems to compare to allot
of wire antennas I've used on various other stations at different
locations.  It also works quite nicely on 6M presenting less than 2 to 1
swr and vertually no noise.
So I'm happy with the results.  I have had no issues with water getting
into either the balun or the coaxial choke at the feed point.  I didn't do
anything special to seal those units up either, just used vulkanizing
rubber tape to wrap all coax connecters.
It's too bad some of you have had problems with quality on these antennas.
A windom, or carolina windom tends to be a very popular antenna because it
is multi-banded, actually presents some gain on bands like 20 and 10M, is
broad banded and typically exhibits a reasonable swr when set up correctly.

They do recommend it be set up in a straight flat top configuration  at a
height of at least 20 meters, or 60 feet with the vertical radiator hanging
straight down away from any metal objects like polls or towers.  However,
it seems to perform quite well even in a terrible configuration like
mine...certainly as good or slightly better than a mono band dipole at the
same height and in the same configuration.  The only nulls I have are
towards Japan because it is right off the tip of the long leg of the
antenna, and a little bit to the north and slightly east, but not towards
europe thankfully.

73
Colin, V A6BKX
-----Original Message-----
From: Fred Adams
Sent: Monday, March 09, 2015 4:34 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Windom Antenna

Well, last week I asked for any info that you have on the windom antenna.
I had a windom antenna that I have had for a long time and decided it to
put it up and I did.  I tried it for several days but the standing wave was
off the scale and I couldn't bring it down.  I finally decided to replace
it with my old faithful bazooka antenna for 75 meters and it works great.
I also tried tuning the bazooka on 40 meters with my LDG AT 1000 tuner and
it worked pretty well.  I think the balun must be bad on the windom
antenna.

Anyway, I do not plan to play anymore for now with the windom antenna.The
bazooka is hard to beat as a single band dipole and maybe some other bands
with a tuner.