[TowerTalk] G5RV vs 40M dipole

[WA8JXM]

You say fan dipoles are heavy and difficult to get to behave.   It all 
depends.   You are right if done as a true dipole and for all the bands.

I cannot envision a 160/80/60/40/30/20/17/15/12/10m fan dipole although 
I do recall Hint & Kinks publishing a 5 band fan dipole using 4 wire 
flat rotator cable for the conductors.

However tfan dipoles do well as a 2 or 3 band inverted vee, supported in 
the center.  I have a 160 and 80m fan inverted vee on the tower, and 15' 
below it, a 40 and 30 m fan inverted vee, which also loads on 15m.   The 
30m is suspended from the 40m wire. However, the 160 and 80m vees go to 
separate tie points.

I did, at one time have a 5 band fan dipole up in the air.  You are 
right, they can be challenging to adjust when you get that many bands 
tied together.

But they are good solid performing antennas, simple and inexpensive to 
build.

73, Ken WA8JXM

On 25/04/2015 23:27, Bry Carling wrote:
> My experience has been entirely  different. Fan dipoles are extremely heavy and difficult to get to behave. A G5RV will take full legal power. It does not mysteriously generate noise as claimed. Many people use them on all bands with great success.
> I'm not worried about supposed patterns. They just work.