My experience with a Radio Works Carolina Windom 160 special with 75' of
RG-8x lead is as follows. The antenna is mounted 50' off of the ground.
The "special" antenna is the same as the Windom 80 (133' long) but the balun
and isolator are wideband to cover 160. I bought it with the insulated #12,
259 strand option.

The supplier states that you need to be able to tune for VSWR up to 10:1.
Most built-in tuners will not handle that range. My Ten-Tec Jupiter
w/autotuner does.
Measured average VSWR per band w/o tuner is below:
160 9.3:1
75 4.3:1
60 5.8:1
40 4.3:1
20 2.4:1
17 3.1:1
15 2.6:1
12 1.3:1
10 2.6:1

Except for 160, the VSWR variation across a band is less than +/- 0.5. The
high end of 160 is about 7:1 and the low end about 12:1. Except for 160, the
tuner brings it to 1.0:0. The beauty is, once I tune a frequency in a band,
I do not tune again while I'm in the band.

As far as azimuth pattern goes, the density of contacts pretty much tracks
where I expect the stations to be most dense. So, I would guess the pattern
is somewhat close to omni as the supplier claims. It appears to have good
low angle radiation since I have made numerous contacts at 4000+ miles with
my 100 W PEP SSB. I have only had the antenna (and my ticket) for less than
a month. I have made no contacts on 160 (only tried twice) 15 to 10 have
been dead and I really haven't tried. 75 through 17 have been rewarding.

73
Larry
"Pat Myers" wrote in message
...
I have posted this on eHam.com, but thought I'd try here as well.

Sorry if this story is rather convoluted, but I'm in a bit of a quandary
and
any help would be appreciated.

I am getting back into ham radio after a ten year absence, and HF
operating
has always been my favorite. In the past I lived in a rural area, and
could
put up whatever sort of antennas I wanted, and was even pretty good at
making my own dipoles for various bands.

However, I now live in a subdivision that, while antennas are not
forbidden
outright, the civic association is vicious and not to be trifled with,
hence
I wanted to go with something at once stealthy but versatile.

At first I thought to try the old stand-by, the G5RV, but in doing my
Internet research on the issue, I came across this "Carolina Windom"
multiband antenna, which seemed to give more bangs for the buck. I ended
up
purchasing one from an outfit that will remain nameless here, to the tune
of
around $150, when you include shipping, rope and other incidentals.

It was a bear of a job to put up, since I had to threat it through tree
branches and whatnot (which is why I got the one with the insulated wire),
but I got it up. Suspended from trees, the "matching transformer" (looks
like a balun to me) and the long segment of wire was up about 35', more or
less horizontal. The shorter end sloped down, with the end about 10' up (I
had no alternative in this).

After making up the 100 or so foot feed line (RG-8X) and grounding the rig
(8' copper ground rod), I hooked up my Yaesu FT-890...and the SWR was
through the roof on all bands.

Anything more than a few watts, on 80 through 10m, made the radio shut
down.
I checked continuity all the way back to the antenna, and everything seems
OK, except the balun shows a dead short on my VOM. However, the antenna
maker says their balun is supposed to show a dead short, and when I took
the
antenna back down I could find nothing else wrong with it (no damaged
insulation, all connections weatherproofed to the max, not that it had
been
up long enough to get wet, etc).

Except for power and phone lines running along the back property line (and
the slinky antenna I put up later is no further away from those than the
Windom was, and I am having no problems with it), there was nothing
metallic
nearby to detune the antenna, and even if there was, I can't imagine even
that would create the high SWR I am seeing.

I called the manufacturer up and after telling me there was nothing wrong
with the antenna based on what I told them, they just said to send the
antenna back to them and they would "check it out".

We finally get to my question. I have been working on getting an antenna
for
weeks, and am tired of fooling with assorted vendors (have dealt with
several during this process, and none have impressed me).

Given how much I will pay out further on shipping the antenna both ways
and
the like, I am wondering if I would be better off simply buying a decent
4:1
balun, replace the existing "matching transformer" with it, and use the
rest
of the antenna components (wire, coax, RF choke), and if so, is this more
likely to work? Based on my research, the original Windom antenna design
used a 4:1 balun, and the wire lengths of the antenna I bought look to be
pretty close to specs per that design, which is why I suggest this option.

Unfortunately I am no antenna guru, and even with all the information I've
found on the Windom, the data is a bit ambiguous on this point. So, before
I
throw any more good money after bad, I would appreciate any help you all
could give me in this matter. Thanks and 73.

PS What to take out of my email address to make it work is pretty
obvious...