[Elecraft] G5RV

[john petters G3YPZ]

> Anybody wanna chew on the G5RV ?
> Pros and cons?
>
Yes forget it. Put up a doublet with open wire, or ribbon and tune it with
good balanced atu. Many folk using the K2 are running qrp, so an efficient
antenna is very important.. The Extended double zepp is a good bet if it is
a half wave above grond and horizontal.
The 5RV is a poor compromise, which is often used with coax, tuned by an atu
in the shack, to fool the transmitter that the antenna is matched. Ditch the
coax and run balanced feed all the way to the shack. If coax is required put
the tuner between the coax and the balanced feed where the mismatch will be.

A lot of folk in the UK use the 5RV with the feeders strapped on 160 M .
There is a better solution which I have tried - a 100 ft circumference
vertical loop with a series capacitor fed with coax through a ferrite
transformer. The design can be found on G4LNA's website. He puts out one of
the strongest signals in London on topband, frequently out doing the 5RV
brigade. Feed it open wire or ribbon and it will perform very well on all
the HF bands.
A good groundplane, 5/8 wave if possible should also knock the spots of a
5RV or trapped dipole.
There are many different designs in the books. Remember if you are running
QRP and you want a big signal, then you need some gain. My 2 ele quad on 20M
got me good QSOs with the West Coast on 20M with just 10 watts ssb on the
K2 - but ensure you don't loses precious S points due to uncompressed audio.

John Petters
Amateur Radio Station G3YPZ
www.traditional-jazz.com
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