[TowerTalk] G5RV

[Mahlon Haunschild]

... but Dino, if you remove the coax/balun/twinlead then the antenna is 
no longer a resonant antenna system on 20 meters, as designed (e.g. it's 
no longer a G5RV).  It's just a random length dipole fed with low-loss 
ladder line by an antenna matching network.  No rocket science there.

The advantage of the G5RV is that it's a resonant antenna that exhibits 
some gain in certain radiation lobes, but only on 20 meters.  That's all 
Louis ever intended it to be, I believe.  Everything else written about 
the antenna is marketing hype, IMHO.  But you don't have to take my word 
for it; go back and read his article in the Compendium instead.

regards,

Mahlon - K4OQ

Dino Darling wrote:

> Hornets nest....yep!
> 
> I was told to REMOVE the balun (mine was a Van Gordon voltage balun) and 
> hook the coax directly to the ladder line.  I instead cut my antenna at 
> the center insulator and got rid of the coax/balun/twinlead and 
> installed 450 ohm ladder line directly to a tuner and each 51' leg.  It 
> works MUCH better than the G5RV ever did!!!
> 
<snip>
> 
> At 07:07 PM 01/03/2004 -0500, you wrote:
> 
>> All,
>>
>> I recently put up the G5RV that my wife purchased for me at 
>> Christmas.  After putting it up and taking it down 4 times, I must 
>> confess that I am at a loss.
>>
>> Some background:
>>
>> My property is large enough for a G5RV, but not for an 80 meter 
>> inverted vee.  So I elected so ask "Santa wife" for the G5RV (one of 
>> the premanufactured ones available at the local ham radio store).
>>
>> The antenna is supported by approximately 33' of mast at the center 
>> and slopes down to approximately 11 feet at the ends.  (High enough to 
>> keep the kids out of it.)  The ladder line is held away from the pole 
>> all the way down approximately 5 or 6 inches with a couple of wooden 
>> standoffs that I fabricated.  I also tried coiling about 7 or 8 - 6" 
>> turns of coax at the feed point per a suggestion I saw on a web site 
>> although this didn't seem to have any impact on the performance or 
>> SWR.  I also tried changing the length of coax feeding the antenna, 
>> but still not difference.
>>
>> My concern is this, while I get a good SWR on 20 (about 1.5 at 
>> 14.200), I am unable to make the antenna work on any other band 
>> without using a tuner.  The SWR on any other band is at least 4:1 or 
>> higher.  I had a G5RV about 20 years ago and seem to remember that it 
>> had a decent SWR on 80, 40 and 20.  I tried to play with the length of 
>> the wire, adding several lengths to the ends, but still could not find 
>> a resonate point on any other band.
>>
>> While I don't mind using a tuner, I am wondering if I am missing 
>> something.  I verified all of the dimensions (102' of wire and 31' of 
>> ladder line).
>>
>> Any idea?  I hope that I am not stirring up a hornets nest with this 
>> question.
>>
>> Thanks in advance...
>>
>> KD8OK  -  Mike
> 
> 
> Dino...k6rix at earthlink.net