Hi Steve,

Thanks for the azimuth plot. This was just what I was looking for.

I am on a sand dune above Lake Michigan 32 miles east southeast of the
Sears Tower.

The antenna that I am writing about is the Radio Works 80 Special with
41¹ and 25¹ element lengths. The radiating coax is 10¹ strapped to a
fiberglass mast. The dipole feedpoint is 30¹ above the sand and about
90¹ above Lake Michigan across the road. It is broadside to due north.

I get a lot of contacts from Georgia, Texas and the US northwest but
nothing from Europe, Japan or Australia.

I work 20m ssb primarily and so have cut and put up a 3/2 wavelength
centerfed dipole; slightly different location but same orientation with
an aluminum mast. Similar performance on 20. With the Palstar tuner; it
loads on 40.

My choices come down to keeping the Carolina Windom up, taking it down
or re-orienting (But I am squeezed by 7200v powerlines and large oak
trees in a terminal forest.).

It would be useful to have azimuth plots for 40 and 80 for this antenna;
if for nothing else than a starting point.

Thoughts?

Rick
W9ZD

On Oct 16, 9:28*am, wrote:
Hi Steve,

Thanks for the azimuth plot. This was just what I was looking for.

I am on a sand dune above Lake Michigan 32 miles east southeast of the
Sears Tower.

The antenna *that I am writing about is the Radio Works 80 Special with
41¹ and 25¹ element lengths. The radiating coax is 10¹ strapped to a
fiberglass mast. The dipole feedpoint is 30¹ above the sand and about
90¹ above Lake Michigan across the road. It is broadside to due north.

I get a lot of contacts from Georgia, Texas and the US northwest but
nothing from Europe, Japan or Australia.

I work 20m ssb primarily and so have cut and put up a 3/2 wavelength
centerfed dipole; slightly different location but same orientation with
an aluminum mast. Similar performance on 20. With the Palstar tuner; it
loads on 40.

My choices come down to keeping the Carolina Windom up, taking it down
or re-orienting (But I am squeezed by 7200v powerlines and large oak
trees in a terminal forest.).

It would be useful to have azimuth plots for 40 and 80 for this antenna;
if for nothing else than a starting point.

Thoughts?

Rick
W9ZD

I got to try a Windom antenna over a really good ground system and was
pretty much amazed at the performance. The antenna was a
decommissioned LOM antenna waiting for the bulldozers for about 2
years. Good grounds certainly make a difference.

Jimmie

wrote:
Hi Steve,

Thanks for the azimuth plot. This was just what I was looking for.

I am on a sand dune above Lake Michigan 32 miles east southeast of the
Sears Tower.

The antenna that I am writing about is the Radio Works 80 Special with
41¹ and 25¹ element lengths. The radiating coax is 10¹ strapped to a
fiberglass mast. The dipole feedpoint is 30¹ above the sand and about
90¹ above Lake Michigan across the road. It is broadside to due north.

I get a lot of contacts from Georgia, Texas and the US northwest but
nothing from Europe, Japan or Australia.

Ahh, you are in the great RF black hole, according to some.

Anyhow, propagation to some of the places you haven't reached might be
problematic. Not really antenna problems.


I work 20m ssb primarily and so have cut and put up a 3/2 wavelength
centerfed dipole; slightly different location but same orientation with
an aluminum mast. Similar performance on 20. With the Palstar tuner; it
loads on 40.

My choices come down to keeping the Carolina Windom up, taking it down
or re-orienting (But I am squeezed by 7200v powerlines and large oak
trees in a terminal forest.).

It would be useful to have azimuth plots for 40 and 80 for this antenna;
if for nothing else than a starting point.

Thoughts?

Maybe time to download EZnec?

The OCF antenna can work very well. I put one up once because the place
where the coax dropped was really handy to my shack entrance. It worked
"well". I did some QRP into California on 80 meters during a contest,
and I worked what I heard. That doesn't specifically mean that the
antenna performed well, but it does mean that I worked QRP into
California on 80 from the middle of PA.



- 73 de Mike N3LI -

Michael Coslo wrote:
wrote:

Thoughts?

Maybe time to download EZnec?

The OCF antenna can work very well. I put one up once because the place
where the coax dropped was really handy to my shack entrance. It worked
"well". I did some QRP into California on 80 meters during a contest,
and I worked what I heard. That doesn't specifically mean that the
antenna performed well, but it does mean that I worked QRP into
California on 80 from the middle of PA.



How will you model the radiating feedline? I suppose one could just put
a "wire" in the model to represent the coax shield (which is what
radiates) and tie it to something useful. Someone's probably figured
out what the equivalent impedances are for the "isolator" and "balun"
that form part of that antenna. Maybe googling "NEC model Carolina
Windom" might turn up something useful.

Jim Lux wrote:
Michael Coslo wrote:
wrote:

Thoughts?

Maybe time to download EZnec?

The OCF antenna can work very well. I put one up once because the
place where the coax dropped was really handy to my shack entrance. It
worked "well". I did some QRP into California on 80 meters during a
contest, and I worked what I heard. That doesn't specifically mean
that the antenna performed well, but it does mean that I worked QRP
into California on 80 from the middle of PA.



How will you model the radiating feedline? I suppose one could just put
a "wire" in the model to represent the coax shield (which is what
radiates) and tie it to something useful. Someone's probably figured
out what the equivalent impedances are for the "isolator" and "balun"
that form part of that antenna. Maybe googling "NEC model Carolina
Windom" might turn up something useful.

That's pretty much what I would do re the wire. I suspect that the
pattern would be complex in any event. Richard was closest to correct
when he advised to listen to the manufacturer.

At first blush, I would think that the antenna is probably not far from
omnidirectional, but the horizontal component might skew it a bit. Any
rate, I don't think that his issues with working EU are antenna related.

- 73 de Mike N3LI -

On Oct 16, 2:28*pm, wrote:
Hi Steve,

Thanks for the azimuth plot. This was just what I was looking for.

It would be useful to have azimuth plots for 40 and 80 for this antenna;
if for nothing else than a starting point.

Rick
W9ZD

Rick,

On 80m it's almost omni-directional; worst-case eccentricity is around
4.5dB at 26 degrees elevation angle. The preferred directions are
broadside.

On 40m the pattern is more complex. At medium elevation angles (40-70
degrees) end-to-end is slightly better than broadside; at lower
elevation angles the pattern develops into 4 lobes NE/NW/SE/SW
(ssuming the antenna runs N-S)

Hope that helps,

Steve G3TXQ