-----Original Message-----
From: towertalk-bounces@contesting.com
[mailto:towertalk-bounces@contesting.com]On Behalf Of
k2qmf@juno.com
Sent: Thursday, July 07, 2005 6:27 PM
To: finger@goeaston.net
Cc: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Rigging Dipoles and Growing Old
Note: all previous responses have been "cut".
I have long been a fan of the OWL-fed dipole with balun and
tuner. However, when I moved to a new house (on a small lot but
with quite a few nice tall Pines) this past winter I wanted to
get something up quick. Most of my "stuff" was in boxes, so I
swallowed my pride and ordered an 80-meter Carolina Windom. I
threw it up about 70' (pulleys and lines had been installed by
tree climbers during construction) and I fired up the new Orion
and have been having a blast.
It is performing far better than I expected. I've worked 255
countries in all directions using casual CW in my spare time
(mostly just in the evenings) in the last 6 months. It works
great on all bands. The Orion tuner (and the old Alpha 76
Pi-Net) tune it just fine on all bands. I know it probably has
an inefficient balun at the feedpoint, and the RG8X is not the
lowest loss stuff in the world, and I have 175' of Bury-Flex just
to get to the ground-level feedpoint, but the darn thing really
works.
I am going to put up an OWL-fed dipole to do some comparative
testing, but for now I am pretty happy.
My advice: Forget the OWL, forget the RG8 feed, get (or build) a
Carolina Windom. It may not actually work better than a dipole
but the feed impedance seems to behave a lot better. Being able
to eliminate the external tuner is a big relief as far as I am
concerned.
_______________________________________________
See: http://www.mscomputer.com for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless Weather
Stations", and lot's more. Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any questions
and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
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