i am thinking about the purchase of a Barker &Williamson BWD-90
all looks good
anybody have or any experence with this dipole
thanx
howard

In article C%lAd.602139$nl.127743@pd7tw3no,
"Howard" wrote:

i am thinking about the purchase of a Barker &Williamson BWD-90
all looks good
anybody have or any experence with this dipole
thanx
howard

The T2FD design is a definitely a compromise...I use the B&W for both
Ham and MARS operations. It is NOT as good as a single dipole cut for
any one frequency but it does work well, and is more efficient from a
system point of view when you must quickly change frequency without
having to retune, ALE operation for example. You'll undoubtedly get many
replies saying "...it's a dummy load hanging in mid-air", "...it's
totally inefficient", "...save your money and get a tuner and a
whatever". My advice is take in all the feedback you'll get and decide
for yourself -- don't let the pundits overwhelm the process.

Mine's been up for 7 years, I can run full power from 80m thru 10m (it's
operation on 160 is disappointing but I don't work that band much).

GL -- Dino KL0S/4

Howard wrote:
i am thinking about the purchase of a Barker &Williamson BWD-90
all looks good
anybody have or any experence with this dipole
thanx
howard


Here is a link to really good article about the BWD-90.
http://www.bwantennas.com/instr/PCJulyTechShowcase.pdf
I have a friend who has one up for the last 5 years and is very please
with it.
73
Richard WB8KRN

Howard:
I had one of those just long enough to verify my suspicion. The antenna
consists of an 800 ohm resistor at the center of the top wire and a balun.
Basically you are feeding a dummy load with antenna wires between the balun
and the resistor. The wires radiate some signal and the rest is dissapated
as heat in the resistor. Comparing it to a G5RV at the same height and on 80
meters, the B&W was 20db down! If you never compared it, you would never
know the difference. You would still hear your local buddies and they would
give you a 5/7 RST and everyone would be happy. These dummies that think
this antenna is acceptable have never bothered comparing them and are more
interested in having a low SWR than anything else. Oh...Also it's ugly with
it's huge white pvc pipes and sags in the middle due to all the weight of
the resistor and balun. I sent mine back for a refund. If you want a wire
antenna, put one up and feed it with a tuner and open wire. Use an auto
tuner. Anything would work better! 73

--
Steve N4LQ
"Howard" wrote in message
news:C%lAd.602139$nl.127743@pd7tw3no...
i am thinking about the purchase of a Barker &Williamson BWD-90
all looks good
anybody have or any experence with this dipole
thanx
howard

Go to W4RNL's web site and read his report on the TTFD antenna (the real
name for the B&W and others)...
I had one....still do....it does give you LOW SWR across the bands...BUT if
you want the BEST compromise and dont mind using a tuner, put up a dipole or
inverted V cut for the lowest freq possible and use a tuner with ladder line
or coax to it....you will get 3 S units (10-20db) better below 7 MHz and 3db
or so better at higher freqs with such an arrangement!

BTW W4RNL's web site is http://www.cebik.com/radio.html
and the link to his discussion on the TTFD is:
http://www.cebik.com/t2fd.html and
http://www.cebik.com/wbfd.html

Chris
WB5ITT

"Howard" wrote in message
news:C%lAd.602139$nl.127743@pd7tw3no...
i am thinking about the purchase of a Barker &Williamson BWD-90
all looks good
anybody have or any experence with this dipole
thanx
howard