[Elecraft] OT:. G5RV's

[Wes Stewart]

In my 1999 paper, /"Balanced Transmission Line in Current Amateur Practice"/ 
(http://k6mhe.com/n7ws/Ladder_Line.pdf), published in the /ARRL Antenna 
Compendium, Volume 6, /pp 174-178, I have this statement: "A popular multiband 
wire antenna is the so-called G5RV. This antenna is rarely used as was intended 
by Varney, but for some reason, the 102-foot length has taken on mystical 
properties,...."

It's a pity that too many newcomers, as well as many oldsters, are enamored by 
this piece of wire.  First, a 102' length is not resonant on 20-meters, so in 
common jargon, it's *not* a 20-meter antenna, any more than any other random 
length would be. Second, I understand that the conventional wisdom is that it 
has "gain" on 20-meters.  Maybe so, but the usual application has the wire 
strung up between available supports that may, or may not, direct the "gain" in 
a useful direction.  A coax-fed, rotatable, resonant dipole would run rings 
around a G5RV.

(While it's off-topic on this off-topic subject, the fascination with the 
"magical" 43-foot vertical is equally bewildering to me.)

In my published paper, space limited any discussion of tuner loss, however, in 
1994 (type)written correspondence with editor Dean Straw I gave him examples of 
the horrific losses that could be incurred even with high quality tuners, when 
used as proposed the the article* that got me going on this subject.  It's 
interesting to note that to my knowledge, loss in tuners had never been 
mentioned in any ARRL publications before this correspondence. Shortly 
thereafter, "/How to Evaluate Your Antenna Tuner" /was published in 1995.  
Coincidence I'm sure.

BTW, any ARRL publication before 1994 with charts of transmission line loss that 
include open-wire line is incorrect.  It's easily seen by inspection, but 
apparenty I was to first to inspect it. Dean and I hashed out a correct 
attenuation chart.

Wes  N7WS

* "/The Lure of the Ladder Line", QST, /December 1993, pp. 70-71




: On 8/4/2016 11:08 AM, Ken G Kopp wrote:
> As usual, Jim is correct ...
>
> I have Lou Varney's original article.  The G5RV was designed as a 20M
> --ONLY-- antenna.  It's now achieved some kind of cult ... read voodoo ...
> status. (;-)
>
> If one has an antenna that is partially fed with balanced line that's then
> directly (!) spliced to a specific length of coax and then still requires a
> tuner, why not run the balanced line directly to the tuner ... assuming it
> has a balun ... or provide one at the tuner?
>
> This same argument would apply to Varney's design for a 20M only dipole.
>
> Maybe he didn't have a tuner of any kind, and wanted to use coax feed line
> because there was a coax connector on his rig. (;-)
>
> 73
>
> K0PP