Saturday, October 1, 2011

Home Brew Carolina Windom 40

I have been experimenting with wire antennas since I got my technician ticket in November of 2010 and it realy took off when I passed my general in Jan of 2011. I have been reading and researching trying different things and this is my latest attempt at making a wire antenna.  My idea here was to build a home brew version of the Carolina Windom 40 (http://www.radioworks.com/ccw40.html) which sells for $140 ....
Here is my parts list
100 foot roll of 14 gauge Poly Stealth wire $24 (expensive but I think its worth it) (HRO)
30 feet of RG213 $30 (HRO)
PL259 - SO239 $6 (HRO)
Insulators $3 (HRO)
Unadilla 4:1 balun $30 (HRO)
2 feet 4" corrugated drain pipe and caps $7 (sprinkler world)
Total $100
Now you could save some money by using cheaper coax than RG213 but I a chunk laying around so I didn't incur the cost on this build
I am not going to sit here and write how to build this antenna because that has been done and done again on the Internet so do a little research.  Its not rocket science ....
Here is my plan
25 foot and 41 foot horizontal radiator connected to the 4:1 balun
Create a 1:1 air choke (ugly balun) http://www.hamuniverse.com/balun.html
with a 10 foot length of coax on top side to connect to the 4:1 balun
Put it all together and your done
My Ugly Balun

The 4:1 balun
My 4:1 attached to the pole before raising


Finally one of the horizontal legs tied off to my back wall

More to come on this antenna as I test it and see how it performs. First impression seems to be a good performer even though I have in set up in less than optimal conditions (only 16 feet off the ground @ center)
Stay tuned more to come
Kelly
k7pwt
 

1 comment:

  1. 5/11/2013 1year 7months later
    Howdy Folks Glad you found this page as have allot of other folks ... It has more hits than any other page on my blog and generates more email questions and I answer each and every one to the best of my ability. Just so you know the antenna is still up and working in the Arizona desert sun so it is showing the test of time and still has very low SWR across the bands
    Hope to catch you on the air and if we do let me know you saw my blog !!!!
    Peace 73
    Kelly
    K7PWT

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