On 7MHz and above it is an excellent antenna allowing very quick frequency switching with a tuner but for frequencies below that the signal loss is considerable and you will hear far more stations than you can contact. This is a compromise antenna due to the size and the longer versions (25m) are far better but are still rated for a max 150W SSB & 75w data. It all depends on what space you have available what height restrictions you have, power requirements etc. For me it is a good antenna as it means I don't have to go outside every time I want to change bands and although the TX is very limited it does give me 160m on occasions.
This was the 10m version from Diamond according to my simulations the 25m version should perform better. There is also another vid where I did a one year follow up you might also enjoy. th-cam.com/video/td_hqSn_c94/w-d-xo.html
Many years ago, I had the Barker and Williamson 90 foot version of this antenna, up horizontally at 40 feet. Though it was rated at 1KW, I occasionally pushed it to 1500 on SSB with an Alpha 87A. (No-tune amp plus no-tune antenna minus an antenna tuner equals minimal effort.) I thought it worked very well on all the HF bands with the exception of 160m. I managed to heat up the once-white termination resistor housing so that it turned brown. Still worked fine. It didn't like 6m, but was oddly happy on 2m. I tried to buy another one but now B and W only makes it with stainless steel wire. The one that I had was Copperweld wire, which they said was no longer available. The stainless one costs a lot.
Hi John, recent Ham myself and suffer with a small footfall also, would have the room for one of these running North/South 30foot up so once I get Xmas out of the way I may bite the bullet and get one in the new year. Currently using a half size G5RV and a 5 Band Cobwebb and get mixed results from 40 to 10. I do listen to 80 and hear a lot of stations here in Ireland reasonably good so hoping the WD 330s would give me a shot at them over the winter months. 73s, Seasons Greeting and I'll look forward to watching more of your vids. MI7WPX / 68GI55
The main thing I find is it works great 40m-10m but while it can be used on 160m & 80m the signal loss at those frequencies is very high. I will be trying out some other antennas that can be used on multiple bands over the coming year. It's unfortunate that the weather has turned too cold for field work (SOTA/POTA) at the moment for the longer antennas. The only other one I can recommend for small gardens at the moment is the DX Commander Classic (40m or 80m versions) but some people may have problems with the height as it is taller than a 2 story house and it is a self build. Search DX Commander on TH-cam for details there are many reviews and Calum also has a lot of very helpful videos.
I have it mounted in my loft atm from corner to corner in a inverted v but plan to mount it outside. I must say the noise level on these type of antennas is excellent S2 top end and s5 on 80M and that's in my loft with all the electrical cables.
Having the resister close to the balun makes a much bigger difference than I thought . I will be modifying mine soon to a delta configuration but keeping the resister & balun attached to each other. I just have a couple of things to get.
@@A.R.O.T.A. Sounds interesting. BTW on a side note do know where i can find any decent tutorials on how to use the MMANA program would be great to learn what my EFHW performs like. Thanks M7OLG
@@shizzle666440 The only one I would recommend is DX Commander's 4 part tutorial. It doesn't cover everything but it's the best one I know of. Follow this link to part 1 :- th-cam.com/video/ZuNY5-5qXes/w-d-xo.html
@@A.R.O.T.A. Couple of more questions about your WD330S setup if you don't mind. I'm thinking about mounting mine on top of a fiberglass spiderpole (Heavy duty version 12M). Do you use a choke for your antenna and if so how far from the feed point do you have it and also do you have any kind of grounding for the antenna ie grounding the coax. Thanks.
@@shizzle666440 I'm not sure exactly what kind of pole it is that you are thinking of but it needs to be strong enough to hold the weight of the Balun & loading resistor. I do not use a choke or any grounding for the antenna. I have also run some additional checks on the position of the resistor and found that their placement of it reduces the SWR on most bands & also increases the gain slightly.
I'm amazed that you worked the US with 10W and this antenna, is this on ft8 or something rather than ssb. I've found my 10W pretty much useless on ssb. 73s m7ojw
Yes it was on FT8/4 for the results to get recorded on the map view. SSB phone would not have got as far but also the propagation was a little high on the day of testing and that would also have helped a lot.
@@A.R.O.T.A. have you managed to make many contacts on ssb with your 10 w? I've got an OCFD but have had really limited luck to be honest. Solar cycle is supposed to be on the up though I guess so fingers crossed. I'm going to do my intermediate when the club starts meeting again. Cheers M7OJW
@@owen8137 Unfortunately my current QTH doesn't enable to use the voice modes easily so I have only been able to get local contacts. FT8, FT4, JS8, etc. allow me to get a signal out with my poor propagation. I am trying to learn CW as perhaps I might be able to make contacts out of the valley with that but it's slow going.
Great video! @6:41 what is the explanation of the loss in gain at the lower frequencies? I have looked elsewhere on TH-cam but the only thing that comes up are additional losses due the transmission line, in particular as you go up in frequency. I imagine that this is not what is at play here?
The resistor allows this antenna to sort of cheat by removing the parts of the signal that will not resonate on the length of wire it has available. As the frequency decreases the amount of wire required to resonate well increases. Because of this the % of the wavelength able to resonate on the antenna is reduced and the rest is absorbed by the resistor.
Thank you. While it isn't easy getting a signal out (VHF & UHF are almost impossible) due to the valley I am in. I find placing dipoles close to the ground so the signals are reflected upwards by the ground makes getting out so much easier.
the trouble with any antenna resting on a fence is it will contravene the OFCOM calculator measurements of keeping the antenna away from the neighbors and public surly.
H0w good how bad according to your experiences please let me know i am planning t buy it soon
On 7MHz and above it is an excellent antenna allowing very quick frequency switching with a tuner but for frequencies below that the signal loss is considerable and you will hear far more stations than you can contact. This is a compromise antenna due to the size and the longer versions (25m) are far better but are still rated for a max 150W SSB & 75w data. It all depends on what space you have available what height restrictions you have, power requirements etc. For me it is a good antenna as it means I don't have to go outside every time I want to change bands and although the TX is very limited it does give me 160m on occasions.
@@A.R.O.T.A. thx u Mr.John
I have both the Diamond and the Yaesu versions. Great antennas and sadly overlooked. Great video and thanks for making it.
This was the 10m version from Diamond according to my simulations the 25m version should perform better. There is also another vid where I did a one year follow up you might also enjoy.
th-cam.com/video/td_hqSn_c94/w-d-xo.html
Thanks for your efforts in putting this video up, it's certainly a flexible option for those of us with a limited footprint. Y
My thoughts exactly.
While it is a compromise for it's size it works tremendously well.
Many years ago, I had the Barker and Williamson 90 foot version of this antenna, up horizontally at 40 feet. Though it was rated at 1KW, I occasionally pushed it to 1500 on SSB with an Alpha 87A. (No-tune amp plus no-tune antenna minus an antenna tuner equals minimal effort.) I thought it worked very well on all the HF bands with the exception of 160m. I managed to heat up the once-white termination resistor housing so that it turned brown. Still worked fine. It didn't like 6m, but was oddly happy on 2m.
I tried to buy another one but now B and W only makes it with stainless steel wire. The one that I had was Copperweld wire, which they said was no longer available. The stainless one costs a lot.
Informative mate - thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
Hi John, recent Ham myself and suffer with a small footfall also, would have the room for one of these running North/South 30foot up so once I get Xmas out of the way I may bite the bullet and get one in the new year. Currently using a half size G5RV and a 5 Band Cobwebb and get mixed results from 40 to 10. I do listen to 80 and hear a lot of stations here in Ireland reasonably good so hoping the WD 330s would give me a shot at them over the winter months.
73s, Seasons Greeting and I'll look forward to watching more of your vids. MI7WPX / 68GI55
The main thing I find is it works great 40m-10m but while it can be used on 160m & 80m the signal loss at those frequencies is very high. I will be trying out some other antennas that can be used on multiple bands over the coming year. It's unfortunate that the weather has turned too cold for field work (SOTA/POTA) at the moment for the longer antennas. The only other one I can recommend for small gardens at the moment is the DX Commander Classic (40m or 80m versions) but some people may have problems with the height as it is taller than a 2 story house and it is a self build. Search DX Commander on TH-cam for details there are many reviews and Calum also has a lot of very helpful videos.
I have it mounted in my loft atm from corner to corner in a inverted v but plan to mount it outside. I must say the noise level on these type of antennas is excellent S2 top end and s5 on 80M and that's in my loft with all the electrical cables.
Having the resister close to the balun makes a much bigger difference than I thought . I will be modifying mine soon to a delta configuration but keeping the resister & balun attached to each other. I just have a couple of things to get.
@@A.R.O.T.A. Sounds interesting. BTW on a side note do know where i can find any decent tutorials on how to use the MMANA program would be great to learn what my EFHW performs like. Thanks M7OLG
@@shizzle666440 The only one I would recommend is DX Commander's 4 part tutorial. It doesn't cover everything but it's the best one I know of. Follow this link to part 1 :- th-cam.com/video/ZuNY5-5qXes/w-d-xo.html
@@A.R.O.T.A. Couple of more questions about your WD330S setup if you don't mind. I'm thinking about mounting mine on top of a fiberglass spiderpole (Heavy duty version 12M). Do you use a choke for your antenna and if so how far from the feed point do you have it and also do you have any kind of grounding for the antenna ie grounding the coax. Thanks.
@@shizzle666440 I'm not sure exactly what kind of pole it is that you are thinking of but it needs to be strong enough to hold the weight of the Balun & loading resistor. I do not use a choke or any grounding for the antenna. I have also run some additional checks on the position of the resistor and found that their placement of it reduces the SWR on most bands & also increases the gain slightly.
I'm amazed that you worked the US with 10W and this antenna, is this on ft8 or something rather than ssb. I've found my 10W pretty much useless on ssb. 73s m7ojw
Yes it was on FT8/4 for the results to get recorded on the map view. SSB phone would not have got as far but also the propagation was a little high on the day of testing and that would also have helped a lot.
@@A.R.O.T.A. have you managed to make many contacts on ssb with your 10 w? I've got an OCFD but have had really limited luck to be honest. Solar cycle is supposed to be on the up though I guess so fingers crossed. I'm going to do my intermediate when the club starts meeting again. Cheers M7OJW
@@owen8137 Unfortunately my current QTH doesn't enable to use the voice modes easily so I have only been able to get local contacts. FT8, FT4, JS8, etc. allow me to get a signal out with my poor propagation. I am trying to learn CW as perhaps I might be able to make contacts out of the valley with that but it's slow going.
Great video! @6:41 what is the explanation of the loss in gain at the lower frequencies? I have looked elsewhere on TH-cam but the only thing that comes up are additional losses due the transmission line, in particular as you go up in frequency. I imagine that this is not what is at play here?
The resistor allows this antenna to sort of cheat by removing the parts of the signal that will not resonate on the length of wire it has available. As the frequency decreases the amount of wire required to resonate well increases. Because of this the % of the wavelength able to resonate on the antenna is reduced and the rest is absorbed by the resistor.
@@A.R.O.T.A. Tx! Really helpful 👌
This is not too bad for an antenna mounted on your fence and nestled amongst all those buildings running 10 watts.
Thank you. While it isn't easy getting a signal out (VHF & UHF are almost impossible) due to the valley I am in. I find placing dipoles close to the ground so the signals are reflected upwards by the ground makes getting out so much easier.
the trouble with any antenna resting on a fence is it will contravene the OFCOM calculator measurements of keeping the antenna away from the neighbors and public surly.