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write your own review of the Radio Works Carolina Windom 80.
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K5DSQ
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Rating: 4/5
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Sep 27, 2011 09:12
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Quality Product
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Have had my Carolina Windom 80 up for a couple of weeks. First impression is the quality… very well made with quality components. The manual (40 pages) is by far the best for any wire antenna I have purchased over the years. On the air it is much quieter than my previous G5RV on the upper bands (20-10) and about the same on the lower frequencies. Might be my imagination, but the upper bands seem to be open more than with the previous antenna and I am getting more returned calls and answers to my CQ’s. It loads well on all bands. No complaints here.
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K1MMI
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Rating: 5/5
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Sep 3, 2011 13:09
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18 Years old and still ticking
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I put my CW80 up on Sept. 3, 1993. I had it mounted at 33 feet and I also had a Van Gordon PD80-10 antenna mounted 5 feet below it. The PD80-10 is basically 4 dipoles attached to a single coax. The wires for both antennas were oriented in the same direction. Both antennas were mounted as inverted vees. I found the dipole on 80 and 40 to be slightly better than the CW80. On 20 the CW80 was far superior. On the other bands it was a coin flip. The auto tuner in my FT-990 was able to match the CW80 on 80,40,30,20,17,15,12,10 and on all frequencies on each band - even though the SWR was 4.5:1 on some frequencies. I've even made contacts on 160 with the CW80. The CW80 is the first wire antenna that I've owned in 50 years that didn't require a lot of maintenance. Overall, the CW80 has proven to be the best wire antenna I've ever used.
Note: My original review was Mar. 3, 2001. Since then I had a problem with the LINE ISOLATOR but pulled it apart and re-soldered a connection to repair it. I use the CW80 almost everyday of the year.
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AA2LD
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Rating: 5/5
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Sep 3, 2011 07:08
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Held up in the Hurricane without a problem
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have had this antenna up for over a year and it stayed up fine during the hurricane here on Long Island. Just made a contact across the country. Great antenna. Just pay attention to proper installation and weatherproofing.
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G0ORC
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 25, 2011 22:00
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Excellent....
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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This is by way of a follow-up to my comments about this antenna made in July 2004 - at that time it had been in the air over three years - well this year it is coming up to its 10th birthday and still on it goes.
Up 37 feet at one end and about 34 at the other with the vertical radiator not very vertical and having had high winds, snow and ice throw themselves at it, it continues to offer excellent performance. Just checked though my log and it has worked 285 entities for me at power levels ranging from 1W QRP to UK full legal without showing any signs of a problem, and that was during a low period in solar activity.
I will just reiterate what I said all those years ago - when you get your antenna make sure it is watertight - self-amalgamating tape around all of the balun body and the RF choke and also the areas where the wire joins the balun. Waterproof your PL259s with amalgamating tape too. Ensure that you don't block up the drain holes and periodically check them.
Oh and I say again : Radio works - please cut the hype on your web site and just let your antenna do the talking.
No complaints from me......
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AC8JD
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Rating: 4/5
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Dec 21, 2010 12:17
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KD8OOZ
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I have my Carolina windom up at 35'. The vertical radiator is not perfect as the instructions suggest, and I do not have it 15' away from the mast as also suggested by the instruction manual, however it still works great! I am not sure that all the hype about the center fed radiator is making any difference at all for more vertical take off on DX, but I am still having a blast with it on 80m, 20m, 17m, and 15m. 10 and 6 are pretty much dead right now. Although the specs for the antenna are to work on 40m, my rig will not tune it. (Yeasu FT-950). It may be the swr is jsut a hair outside of the 3.0:1 that the Yeasu needs to have the antenna in to tune it.
I find that this Radio Works Carolina Windom is not as sensitive on 40m as my home brewed off Center Fed antenna. It is more sensitive and has a quieter noise floor on 20m than my home brew OCF though.
The construction is awesome! I don't see this failing to the West Michigan elements any time soon! Well worth the $120 I paid!
I have nothing except wire antennas at this point but I have worked all over the globe on 100w on them. I never give a 5 to anything very quickly because I rate them fairly new.
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KE5WCE
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Rating: 5/5
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Oct 20, 2010 19:19
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Works Great!!!!!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Had my Carolina Windom 80 up at 35ft going on over a year now with no troubles at all. works great QRP or QRO just make sure its weather sealed and put up right and you will have a excellent multi-band antenna that preforms very well.
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GM0VPG
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Rating: 0/5
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Jan 10, 2010 07:56
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Awful engineering build with no support
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I am not the only amateur who has experienced water ingress with Jim's products. A waste of time emailing. Its as if he doesn't want to improve the engineering quality of his products. Following is the extract I sent to him for his input.... no replies were forthcoming.
The windom has been working fine however over the past two months it has been deteriorating until it got to the point with an unacceptable swr. Further investigations revealed the line isolator was full of water even though the PL259's were well sealed with self amalgamating tape and Scotchkote.
With both ends cemented in place with plastic cement I drilled holes down the side to remove the water. I then decided to crack one end open to get more hot air in to dry it out. As you can see from the photograph the water ingress has come in via the so239 socket which wasn't covered by your water seal of Araldite or suchlike. You can see the bare side of the so239 and self tapping screw not covered.
As an observation the sealing medium does not adhere to the plastic cap and no gasket is fitted between the so239 face and the plastic mounting face either. Being held in place by two self tapping screws is not good engineering practice either and should be fitted with stainless nuts and bolts on all four holes. Whilst I accept you may have hundreds, if not thousands of these products out in the amateur world quality issues have been identified here which basically is an 'own' goal and can be easily remedied.
I would defintely investigate other options. Any problems you are on your own.
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W8DMC
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Rating: 0/5
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Jan 2, 2010 19:51
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Never Again
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Had two...Said I'd not have another, Given one as a gift, it too fell apart, and broke down under mild cross wind. Way too many quality and well built wire antennas to use this HYPE system. Have a 43 foot ZeroFive Antennas, which blows this Antenna out of the water. Heck a 32' S9 Vertical works better and lasts longer. Check them out, they stand after years of wind and use.
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W8MJM
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Rating: 2/5
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Nov 19, 2009 10:20
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needs help on 75
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I installed a Carolina Windom 80 as an inverted vwith the apex at 50 ft and the ends at 20 ft. On 75 meters it was consistantly 3 to 5 s units below my G5RV on receive and with a a/b test it was about the same as the G5RV on transmit. On 20 meters it was very good, often only a couple s units below my beam. On 75 meters it was disapointing. I took it down and put up a homebrew bazooka. Too much money for a wire antenna.
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KD7OED
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Rating: 5/5
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Oct 11, 2009 18:56
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As Good As Your Installation
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Has been up for almost 4 years with no problems. Survived 75+ MPH windstorms that blew down two fences in my yard, caused severe wind damage to my roof (and many others in the area), and even knocked down a commercial cell phone tower a few miles down the road. Is used every day for 75M traffic net and on weekends for ragchewing, digital experiments and contesting on multiple bands. Inverted V configuration with one end at 14', the other end at 8' and the peak at 23'. Primary use is NVIS for state/regional nets, but have used it to work Oceana, Asia, Europe, Carribean, and Central/South America on upper bands with no problem (although Australia/NZ are a challenge) when my beam was down. Would I buy another one? Yes, without question or reservation. Cannot understand how the previous reviewer could possibly rate the ANTENNA at less than five when the problem was with his INSTALLATION. Folks, if your antenna is not installed properly - don't blame the antenna!
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