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Reviews For: Radio Works Carolina Windom 160

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

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Review Summary For : Radio Works Carolina Windom 160
Reviews: 25MSRP: 135
Description:
Asymmetrical horizontal wire antenna for 1.8 through 30 MHz.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.radioworks.com/ccw160.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00254.4
KC0FNS Rating: 2003-12-12
Another use: a stealth antenna! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have had the CW-160 up several times. It worked great when I had a tall enough pole to hang it from. My latest use is as an all band stealth antenna. I am in town now, and have placed the CW-160 around the perimeter of my pie shaped back yard. The CW-160 is attached to the the top rail of the wood fence. The height is about 5 feet, and I have to use a lot of the 22' vertical part as a feed draped along the ground. Please don't shoot the messenger, I know this is not what it was made for, but I get contacts with my casual operating 160M-6M. The SWR is adequate on some bands, and my mfj-941c tunes the antenna just fine.

The vertical radiator has needed some maintanence over the years, it needs a better attachment mechanism with strain relief. Mine needed repair after about 3 years of it's intended use, it was not a big deal to repair it.

73, Mark
W7MHP Rating: 2002-09-04
Super Antenna Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have had this CW160 over 2 years now and am very pleased with it. I've worked all 50 states on 75 meters with it. I use a Yaesu FT-1000D and a Command HF-2500HP, with a Palstar AT4K tuner. My usual power is 1kW pep, but I have used it with a bit more power also. The signal reports were 59+ from most stations, even from Hawaii. It is easy to tune, so much so, that any automatic tuner I own will tune it with ease. On the other hand, in some portions the SWR is flat, so no tuner is needed. I mainly use it on 160 and 80 meters, but I have used this antenna on all bands with outstanding success. This antenna is installed as an inverted Vee up 60' on one of my towers. Both ends are tied to trees at about 15 feet. I have never had any problems with this antenna. I rate its performance as outstanding. I am always amazed how someone can judge a antenna by the theoretical values of its components, rather than its practical performance. Install it correctly, and you will have a lot of fun with it.

Regards,
Scott W7MHP
AB8KJ Rating: 2002-08-16
Nice antenna Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have had this CW160 abt 18mo. now and am very pleased with it. I operate mostly QRP with a K2.
The autotuner in the K2 is easily able to tune this ant anywhere on 160 thru 10m. I have been using this ant on 160 ssb at 10w with good success, most stations I work are amazed at how well it gets out with only 10w! This ant is installed up 60' thru abt 5 oak trees. If you intend to install this ant in the trees, I would pay the extra money for the #13 insulated steel-copper clad wire. I had some problem with wire breakage until I changed it over to the #13. No problems since then. This is one of only a few antennas that really work 160 thru 10m with one wire.
K3UD Rating: 2002-05-31
RG8X Radiator Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Read your review of the CW 160/80 and noted that you had some concerns about the vertical radiator portion of the antenna. I might be missing something very basic here but since the coax is being used as a radiator and not the feedline I would think that it's power handling capacity as published by Belden does not apply in this application. Are not thes values calculated when using RG8X into a 50 ohm load?

73
George
K3UD
AC8Y Rating: 2002-05-31
It’s not worth $135 Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I purchased a Radio Works Carolina Windom 160 for operation on 80 & 160; it replaced a full size 160 M dipole fed with open wire. I was initially turned off by the advertising on the Radio Works web site that inferred that this antenna had 10 dB gain over a dipole. This seems an obvious attempt to mislead the gullible. I purchased one anyway.

The same 3 trees that supported the original dipole support the CW 160. These are big old Oak trees, about 75 feet tall and almost collinear. They are difficult and exhausting to climb—climbing spikes are required as the lowest branches are about 40 feet high. The long leg of the CW 160 is slightly longer than the separation between the widest spaced trees so the center support is about 6 feet from the feed point. The ends of the antenna are attached to ropes that run through pulleys and attach to ten-pound weights near ground level. This configuration allows the trees to sway without stressing the antenna wire. The weights bob slightly when the wind moves the trees.

The initial installation when smoothly until the antenna went “twang” as I was trying to pull it clear of the twigs on a lower tree between the main support trees. The antenna wire had come unwrapped at the feed point and had broken the solder joint to the wire from the center insulator. No real harm was done and the problem was easily corrected but required a lot of extra climbing. Now that I know how frail this antenna is, I’ve been much more gentle with it.

After the antenna was up about 3 months it broke again. This time the wire failed at the center support. The wire probably slid back and forth through the support insulator and eventually wore through. I replaced the wire with the same length of single strand hard-drawn #12 copper wire. Hopefully this wire will be more durable. I resent this antenna for making me climb these trees unnecessarily.

I took the 160-meter dipole down before installing the CW 160 so no direct comparisons could be made. My non-empirical assessment is that the dipole and CW 160 performed about the same on 160 and the CW 160 is much easier to tune on 80. The CW 160 performance on 80 is adequate although there seems to be some significant pattern nulls. I’m not sure if a plain old half wavelength 80 M dipole would be an improvement on 80 m or not. One good feature of the CW 160 is a near 1:1 match on the low end of 160.

The power rating of the antenna is also a concern. Radio Works rates it at the legal limit for SSB and CW only. No continuous power rating is given. Also, the vertical radiator portion of this antenna is a length of RG-8X coax. According to Belden, the maximum power handling capability of RG-8X is 1000 watts at 10 MHz and 370 watts at 50 MHz. This rating is probably conservative but the coax could be over-stressed at the legal limit above 10 MHz.

Overall I give this antenna a C- for poor mechanical reliability, average performance, and misleading advertising. It’s not worth $135