[TenTec] OCF Antennas - Which commercial antenna is gest?

[Rick - DJ0IP / NJ0IP]

As far as I could determine, the first Windom (on record) being fed with
coax was built by Buck Rogers, K4ABT in 1959.  He built it after having met
with Lew McCoy, W1ICP (if my memory is correct).

Buck fed his with RG-11 and used a 1:1 coax balun consisting of 9 turns of
coax on 8" air core.
Might have been 8 turns on 9" but I think it was the other way around.

Considering the antenna has about 235 Ohms on 80/40/20/10 when it's under
50' high, then the mismatch was only 3:1.
In the 1960's, 3:1 was more or less considered to be a perfect match!
I still consider it to be.

BTW, I met with Lew in 1963 but our topic was openwire-fed dipoles.
After Lew described the antenna, I rushed out and bought a Johnson Viking
Kilowatt matchbox and built my openwire using plastic hair curlers (which I
"borrowed" from my mom and two sisters) as spacers.
I caught living hell for stealing their curlers but it was worth it!  ;-)

73 - Rick, DJ0IP
(Nr. Frankfurt am Main)


-----Original Message-----
From: TenTec [mailto:tentec-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Paul Gates
Sent: Tuesday, September 22, 2015 4:55 AM
To: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment
Cc: N4BE_Jim at yahoo.com
Subject: Re: [TenTec] OCF Antennas - Which commercial antenna is gest?

Back inthe 80s I had a windom antenna 120 ft with the split at 40 and 80 ft.
No balun. I worked 80, 40, 20 and 15 with a tuner.
Paul, KW4BD