[Elecraft] G5RV

[Rich Lentz]

I think if you look back in history, before G5RV invented this antenna, =
you
will find a very similar configuration on naval ships.  A multi-wire =
antenna
(4 or 5 parallel wires with a spreader at each end ) similar in =
appearance
to a hammock was stretched from the main mast to either a forward mast =
or
the forward half-mast.  About 1/3 of the distance to one end a single =
wire
(no open feed line or balanced feed line or tapered matching line, just =
one
piece of wire) went to a feed through insulator into the radio room =
which
was usually on the same level and just aft of the wheel house (where the
wheel was) or navigation.  This wire then went to the top of the output =
tank
coil and the bottom of the coil went to ships ground (which was well
grounded in sea water).=20

In the late 50's this same antenna was used BUT a tuner was placed where =
the
feed-through was and then coax was run into a patch-box.  A single wire =
ran
to the spreader wires from the tuner and a coax went from the tuner to =
the
patch box. The patch box was an arrangement of connectors in a 4 X 6 or =
6 X
8 (as I remember) matrix so that you could connect one of the various
transmitters to the needed antenna. Antennas would be in one direction =
and
transmitters would be ion the perpendicular direction. (I forget whether =
the
antennas were in the rows or the columns.) Sometimes you can find this =
box
in the surplus stores.  Separate patch boxes were used for transmitting
antennas and receiving antennas.  When the Radioman patched/plugged the
receiver into the wrong one - I got to fix it for him.  Then coax went =
from
the patch box to the transmitter or receiver.   On the destroyer I was =
on
the wire top part was about 250 feet long and the feeder line was about =
30
feet.  This could be tuned to any Navy band from 500 kHz to 30 MHz.

Rich
KE0X