[Elecraft] Windom Antennas

[Dave Hottell]

Guy,

What you're saying is to pay attention to the usual things that apply to
all antennas and make sure you give a vertical a good ground plane?  As you
noted about your 'killer' vert, there is nothing inherently wrong with
verticals.  But poor installation can bring on loss.

I currently have three and these work fine.  I have done a/b tests against
dipoles and each picks up certain signals better than the other, and the
dipole is probably slightly better overall.  But the verticals are not dogs
by any means.

I use at least 16 radials, more is better - up to about 32 or so.  I
usually use a 1/4 wl radiating element.  And I do live on a large enough
lot that interference from structures is not a problem.  

Feed the resonant ones with good, low-loss, coax.  I have used some
non-resonant verts and it helps them to make sure they are fed at a low
impedance point on the feedline (also applies to horizontal wires).

There may be situations, particularly some backyards, where interference
harms a vert more than a horizontal wire.  There is nothing that can be
done about that.  But that does not make all verts in all situations poor
antennas.  As with everything else about antennas - it all depends.  If
someone is limited in their antenna choices and can put down a good ground,
a vert will do well in the great majority of settings.  But DO put down a
good ground radial system.  A must!

Let me also note that the ground should be less important on a Windom since
the feedpoint impedance tends to be higher then that of a resonant
vertical.  Ground resistance will be proportionally less.

But, YMMV.

73 de Dave
ab9ca/4



At 06:00 PM 6/6/03 -0400, Guy Olinger, K2AV wrote:
>I agree with your statement about poor installation. Unfortunately it's
quite WORSE than that. Lack of a proper ground connection is only loss
factor #1. Note that poor series ground conductivity at a ground located
feedpoint does not apply to a series of "vertical" antennas that have feed
points up the antenna. But the rest below DO.
>
>Loss factor #2: 
>
>An antenna will initially radiate about half its power below the horizon.
Horizontally polarized energy will essentially bounce at some angle, at
full strength.
>

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