[Antennas] WINDOM

Sun Oct 1 10:43:35 EDT 2006

Danny Richardson wrote:
> To add my two-cents I too have used an OFCD, however, I fed it with
> open line all the way to the shack. The antenna was at about 65-70
> high and the length of the transmission line was about 60-65 feet.
> The only problem I experienced was with common mode current on the
> transmission line. At lower power levels this was not a problem but
> increasing the power over about 500 watts resulted in working every 
> electrical/electronic appliance in the house. :-(
>> I went back to a balanced (doublet) antenna and my common mode
> problems went away.
>
I have couple of pennies too.
I have used the windom, single wire, and balun with coax but only to 
cover 80 thru 10. My windoms worked as well as any normal dipole. The 
only advantage I saw was that the windom was more of an all band antenna 
without need for a tuner. Even then some bands had swrs above 2.0.
I have settled on dipoles for the lower frequecy bands. I have one 75 
meter dipole that is driven and three passive half wave lengths of wire 
hanging in close proximity. The mess covers 75, 80, 40, and 30 with 
very low swr and no tuner. All four lengths of wire are spaced about 6 
inches appart and only the 75 meter element is driven. All mounted in 
the inverted vee configuration. Seems to work as well as seperate dipoles.
Regards,
Frank Kamp