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Reviews For: 7 Band Windom by QSO-King

Category: Antennas: HF: Verticals; Wire; Loop

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Review Summary For : 7 Band Windom by QSO-King
Reviews: 4MSRP: $82.00
Description:
2 KW 80-6 meter Windom antenna system
Product is in production
More Info: http://cgi.ebay.com/OCF-Dipole-Windom-80-6-meters-Ham-Antenna-2-KW-/170656386063?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27bbe9cc0f#ht_6205wt_649
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0045
NE1CW Rating: 2012-10-07
Quality is very good Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Really impressed with the quality construction. Time will tell of course. I strung it up between trees in the backyard, got it maybe about 50 feet in the air. Worked Surinam and Germany straight-away. Granted I'm running 1kw output, but reception seemed very good as well. Seems like a good deal for the $$.
K9RLB Rating: 2012-08-08
After one year in air ~ Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Still working - just moved center point today - great performance. BUT, I inspected and found the box was filled with water, and bolts were rusted inside (but not outside) - SO, still a 5 - but water can & does get in over time, so seal it up even more than it comes, and I added 4 small drain holes to bottom so it could drain & dry out if it does get back in there.
KE4GRP Rating: 2011-08-14
Excellent! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Received the antenna in 3 days and had it up in about 10 minutes.

I guess I didn't realize it was so long, so my wife suggested we run it through several trees in the back yard and drop the ends down a little bit. While not an ideal situation, I was able to do a little antenna tuning and have made several long distance DX contacts on the first call.

Great product, well built and great service from Bruce, NU0R.

Chuck
K4GRP.
K8GVK Rating: 2011-07-29
Impressive Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is an antenna system made and sold by Maple Leaf Studio Antennas. Bruce, NU0R has many models marketed on E-Bay. I purchased the 80-6 OCF Windom and received it within 3 days.

It is completely assembled and as simple as attaching your coax feed and raising it in the air.
Construction is quality. The balun is well weather sealed and light in weight so easy to suspend using RG8X. The 135 foot antenna wire is coated 14 gauge and attached to the baluns eye bolts. No connections are exposed to weather.

The performance is impressive. This antenna exhibits low SWR across the bands and no tuner is needed. I have it installed at 35 foot.
The highest SWR I saw was at the top of 40 and 20 meters at just over 2:1. 80 meters is 1.4:1 at 3.5 and climbs to 2.5:1 at 4.0. Less that 1.3:1 across 17, 12 &10....

As for contacts, I have made several on 6 meters when its open. Sudan no problem on 17 meters and I seem to work the DX I hear on 20 & 40. It's not a multi-element yagi, however for a wire system, I give it a 10!

Comparative testing against my 40 meter inverted Vee finds reporting stations giving this antenna 1S unit better on average.
Now will it handle power? YES. I put 1.3 KW into it on 20, 17 and 40 just to test it and saw no signs of balun heating. It just seems to sit there and take it. The Balun is rated at 2KW SSB.

There are lower power models as well as some end fed systems available from Maple Leaf but for sheer quality vs price vs performance, this is a winner for me.