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Reviews For: Radio Works Carolina Beam 80 Special

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

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Review Summary For : Radio Works Carolina Beam 80 Special
	Reviews: 7	MSRP: 125
	Description: Wire antenna with maximum horizontal length of 50 ft. and vertical radiators at the ends 8 ft long. Antenna terminates 17 ft. in from one side with a matching unit with 10 ft of vertical coax to a line isolator which connects to your coax running to your rig it requires a transmatch and covers 10-80 Meter Bands
	Product is not in production
More Info:
# last 180 days	Avg. Rating last 180 days	Total reviews	Avg. overall rating
0	0	7	4.1

AB4PP	Rating:	2012-06-09
Excellent			Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Had no problems with Carolina Beam 80. Took down when squirrels ate into coax and water got into it. Replaced with Carolina Windom 80 compact. It has performed very well so far. Only up one week. Worked everyone I tried to work. Usually do QRP so it is a fantastic antenna from my point of view. 5 watts made several good DX contacts this week including 5w1 in South Pacific. Will wait for a site for the Carolina windom 80 compact and then put another review there. took less than an hour to get up following the directions and used the pulleys to pull it up as I have for 20 plus years. this one is only 69 feet long too. With a small back yard it overlaps to neighbor but he has let me use one of his trees for 20 years. ---------------------- Earlier 5-star review posted by AB4PP on 2012-06-09 Antenna finally quit. No problem with the antenna. Squirrels ate into the coax from balun to line isolator. Decided to try newer version and put up Carolina windom 80 compact this week. It performs as well as the last two that I had up for the last 19 years. There is not a spot for it yet so I am adding this here. Very easy to put together, took less than an hour and had it up 35 feet and with it being shorter (69 feet) i was worried it would not perform as well as the last two. So far it is stellar and I have worked all I can hear so far. Propx sucks so I will wait a while to update this review. So far no problems and it performs and tunes well. ---------------------- Earlier 5-star review posted by AB4PP on 2005-03-13 I have had two of these antennas. I still use both. One came down in a wind storm in '98 and part of the horizontal wire was frayed. I got a new one the next day by driving to Portsmouth, Va and picking it up. We needed it for a Mini expedition to Core Banks and I intended to use it for a week there on the island. The new one has been up in the back yard for 7 years and performs very well and I work QRP mostly. I am a QRP CW op and have 278 countries on this antenna. I also have seen the problem with the water and replaced the coax seal with some new. I have not had problems with freezing or with any residual water in either the balun or the line isolator. I still use the old antenna for expedions to this date and it is 15 years old. It looks old, but it performs like new. I take the antenna down each spring and reapply some new coax seal to the balun and to the line isolator and have no problems.

KE5DFR	Rating:	2007-07-23
Noise			Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
had my Carolina Windom 80 Special up for about 5 weeks now and find it is much noiser than my ground mounted vertical. I have emailed Jim at Radio Works twice and no response. Many times I have to go to the vertical just to hear anything. When the noise is not too bad I can make some great contacts on the antenna. Any suggestions on what to do with the noise.

AB1AC	Rating:	2004-01-07
Works as advertised			Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have had this antenna for two years at my cabin in the White Mountain National Forest. It has insulated wire and is strung through a dense stand of fir trees at about 40 feet. It has survived two winters of 20 feet of snow and temperatures down to -30 deg. f. I sealed all areas in the balun and unun that had screws and have had no moisture problems. The antenna has an excellent signal on 40 and 20 meters. On 80 meters, the signal appears to be about 10 dBs below a dipole. This is consistant with Radio Works' advertisement that the signal on 80 would be 1 to 2 S units below a dipole. The antenna does not work well in an inverted V configuration. Initially, I hung it as an inverted V and could not load it on 80. After I sent an e-mail and received no response, I called Radio Works and a very polite employee told me that it should be in a flat top configuration. As a flat top it works very well. It is a very good antenna for someone who wishes to be on 80 but does not have the space for an 80 meter dipole.

WB2YIP	Rating:	2002-07-29
Water Logged			Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
A Great antenna - I have had 2 or so of these over the last 7 years. Generally speaking, if you can hear them, you'll work them. The problem is in the contraction of the RF Choke (or, as Mr. Jim says 'The line isolator') and the balun (Mr. Jim's Dedicated Matching Unit). You'll receive this with a strip of coax seal and advice that 'You'll void the warranty' if you don't seal these devices properly. Been there done that, sealed everything, screws, lines EVEERYTHING. Generally, the choke or the Balun or both will freeze rock hard in the winter - in warm weather, shake 'em and you'll hear the water and component parts RATTLING around (remember I SEALED these Babies!). I wondered what 'warranty' is voided if you don't seal them? ........................Letters to Mr. Jim went unanswered, hence the purchase of a second..... The second one also went South - this time, I wrote to the advertising manager of QST! Prompt response and request to send these waterlogged babies to the ARRL Lab for inspection! All of a sudden, Mr. Jim sends replacements (Gee! How about that!). The replacements lasted 2 more years - it got to the point where I drilled holes and drained water and sealed 'em back up. The last 80 Special finally gave up the ghost 2 years after the replacement. Hang on to your money and just build your own with a choke and a balun - I did, and GUESS WHAT? It does not get waterlogged! Same experience with the 40 meter special.

G8RZA	Rating:	2002-02-20
Excellent antenna !.			Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Had the Windom 80 special beam for 3 months. Can only run 10 watts, but already worked (without trying) 35 countries including 9K and VK on SSB. Easy to put up, mine at only 23 feet at center, dropping to 18 feet at ends, easily tuned with my MFJ external tuner to 1.2 to 1 on all bands 80-10, including WARC bands. All in all a excellent antenna if you have limited space and QRP.

KL7FRQ	Rating:	2001-12-02
GOOD PERFORMER			Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Since erecting the antenna, I have had great performance from it on all bands. It is mounted a bit lower than I would like or recommended by the manufacturer, but still performs flawlessly nevertheless. I am pretty much bound to using a small wire antenna to keep the visibility down and I could not have picked a better antenna to do the job. The manufacturer indicated that there would be some sacrifice of low band performance (80 meters) but I sure didn't notice any degradation. I used a G5RV and although it was a good performer, the Carolina Beam 80 Special has definitely outperformed it again and again. I am a low power operator and I am enjoying amateur radio again thanks to the Carolina Beam 80 Special

KK8WV	Rating:	2001-06-02
WOW WHAT AN ANTENNA!!!			Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I've had this antenna mounted in my attic (30ft height) for 6 months. It has been incredible! I've worked 50 countries and 41 states and I have a 4 yr old beautiful girl and lovely wife that limit my operating time. I'm in a restricted antenna addition and I ordered this antenna as soon as I found it would fit in my attic. Part of the coax driver (about 3 ft) and part of both vertical wire end elements angle a bit from vertical but that doesn't seem to affect the operation at all. I us an MFJ-914 Auto Tuner Extender with my IC-746 and its built in Auto Tuner and work all bands 10-80... ALL BANDS. And all this with 100 Watts. I Love this Antenna, it got me back in to HF, RagChew, Contest, PSK, MFSK, SSB and CW. The Manufacturer doesn't recommend attic installation of any antennas .... but it works GREAT!!!

Category:

Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

Product:

Radio Works Carolina Beam 80 Special

Summary:

Rating:	Time Owned:
Great! Good OK Needs Help Poor Awful!	0 - 3 Months 3 - 6 Months 6 - 12 Months More than 12 Months

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