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Show all reviews of the Buxcomm Windom 80-6 meters
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of the Buxcomm Windom 80-6 meters.
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K8MFO
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 13, 2009 12:25
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Perfect For Me!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have been licensed for 51 years and am a serious DXer, with a 120 foot tower and an "aluminum jungle" in my back yard, and the latest and greatest radios in an air conditioned shack.
However, I am also a fancier of "boatanchor radios". I love the GLOW of old tube transmitters and receivers. In my barn/workshop I have some fine old radios. At the moment a Johnson Viking Ranger II is the transmitter, and I have the choice of either a Collins 75A4 receiver, or Drake 2B and R4C models. I have long been a fan of center fed dipoles using open wire or ladder line. Of course you also need an antenna tuner, and I have my choice of several. However, I wanted an antenna that would cover 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meters with coaxial feed, and did not require a tuner. I looked at the G5RV and dismissed that option. Later I stumbled onto the BUXCOMM web site and read Buck Rogers' most interesting comments on the Windom. Decades ago I helped a top notch DXer and contester put up a Windom in a residential neighborhood when I was a student at Michigan State. His results were excellent!
Anyway, in the fall of 2007 I called BUXCOMM one evening and Buck Rogers - K4ABT himself answered the phone. I will leave it to you personally to decide whether that was good! Initially , Buck seemed to be in a hurry to close up shop and go home, and he was muttering a bit under his breath. So, being a bit direct, I said, "What are you muttering about, Buck?" That seemed to catch his attention! He and I proceeded to have a very pleasant conversation, and we talked about old radios and the GLORY DAYS of radio,etc. At that point I told Buck that I was interested in the "CW MODEL" of his 80 through 6 meter Windom. He told me that he would personally make one up for me as soon as we hung up, and he did! He also apologized for his earlier "muttering" and said he was going to include his high power balun at no additional charge!
My results with the 30 watts of output from my Ranger II have been quite satisfactory. In the CW Sweepstakes, 2007 running, I decided to go for a Clean Sweep of sections. So I made 80 QSOs in 80 sections -- this took 8 hours. OK -- Worked All States and most Canadian provinces in the time that most people sleep each night! At the end of November 2007 I decided to enter the CQ World Wide CW DX Contest, again with the Ranger II at 30 watts and the BUXCOMM Windom. Remember we are at the bottom of the sunspot cycle, so I only operated casually for 25 hours. The results again were satisfactory with a half million points and 108 countries in the log. I guess DXCC must have taken about 20 hours, which is not bad.
I continue to play around in various contests and to rag chew to my hearts content with the old radios and the Windom! Of course I am not saying the Windom is as good as my aluminum jungle on the big tower, but I do have a reference antenna out at the barn to compare it to. To put it simply, the Buxcomm Windom runs circles around a Cushcraft R7 vertical, and I have always been pleased with that antenna too!
I should also mention that my Ranger II loads just fine into the Windom on 15 meters, even though that is not advertised as an optimum band. Guess what? It also beats the R7 performance wise on that band!
So, what do you want? A well designed antenna that works? Then you may want to consider the BUXCOMM. Buck may be a foul mood when you call him on the phone, but he obviously knows how to design an antenna that works as advertised. Go to the website and read his thoughtful insight yourself, and make your own decision.
Thanks Buck! 73 .... Don K8MFO
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Product is in production.
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