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| Reviews Summary for W5GI Mystery Antenna |
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Reviews: 33
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Average rating: 4.4/5
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MSRP: $100
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Description: Design by John W5gi. This antenna is a collinear array and resembles a G5rv with lots of gain on 20m. Kit form is available from " The Wireman " and is very easy to build. Works on the low bands with a tuner and out performs a G5rv on 40, 80, and 160m. It has 6 lobes broadside, and gain is amazing. I also built a 17m version of this antenna, and compared to my hygain vertical, is as good or in some cases better. If you live in a restricted area and have a way to put up a wire antenna that is 100 ft in total length, and has 6db gain on 20m, this is the antenna for you. Please visit www.w5gi.com and look for the link to the " Mystery Antenna "
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More info: http://www.w5gi.com
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VK3LBT
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Rating: 5/5
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Aug 8, 2009 03:19
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Excellent Performer
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I stumbled across this antenna whilst surfing the net for an antenna project. I currently use a G5RV and an EDZ for 40m, the G5 being a reasonably good all rounder I was after something a bit more efficient with hopefully a little bit of gain. I have just completed today ( 8. Aug. 2009 ) the Mystery Antenna by converting a spare G5, and the results were very surprising :-
Comparisons were run with antennas at same height and physical configuration.
80m - quicker tune up on auto tuner and manual roller inductor atu, received sigs better by at least 2 to 3s points.
40m - VK6 which is about 3000 kms from my qth was 3 s points better than the G5 in a comparison.
20, 15, 10 - although these bands were very quite by switching between the two antennas there was a noticable difference in weak sigs with the Mystery Antenna came well ahead of the G5.
The only inclusion I have made has to be to insert an RF coaxial choke, 18 turns of RG58 on a 2 inch OD section of PVC tube.
Overall - quicker tune up, lower floor noise, clearly better received and sent signal reports.
With most multi - band antennas there is always a compromise and I am sure that the Mystery Antenna will have one, but from my early observations it has not displayed any yet ! I fully recommend this antenna for those who want to do a bit of experimenting and homebrewing for a few hours, and be pleasantly surprised on what this antenna can achieve.
Future plans are to build from scratch this antenna with heavy duty multi-strand copper wire, RG58 and heavy duty 450 ohm feeder as a permanent fixture.
Cheers Barry VK3LBT / VK3MIB
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VU2TTP
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Rating: 4/5
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Apr 1, 2009 03:09
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A simple multi-band solution
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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The "Mystery" in the name of this antenna was what attracted me to take a closer look at it. I have been a long term die hard fan of dipole antenna and when the situation warranted me to put up a dipole for 80m, I was really in a spot because I could not accomodate the required 135 ft length no matter what I tried, given the shape and size of the QTH. The multiband capability really looked like a bonus. After a couple of emails to John the whole thing was clear in my mind and the Antenna was up on a saturday. Unlike my fellow hams from the US, we are'nt so lucky in India, we do not get ready made 450 or 300 Ohms ladder lines, the only option was to home brew it. 70 ft length of 14 AWG wire and 30 no.s of 2 inch Nylon spacers and cable ties resulted in a very sturdy ladder line, though I spent 2 plus hours making it. At the bottom of the ladder line I have a homebrew aircore coax balun made out of RG58 plus an additional 30ft of the same coax connecting to the rig in the shack. It has been a very nice antenna on all the bands except 12m and 10m bands. Not that the antenna performs poorly on these bands, but the propagation has been very poor in the last 8 months on the higher hf bands.
On 80m, we have a 15 min ragchew net everyday on 3600kcs at 1430 UTC. The reports from all the stations have been very good, The best part was that all these stations were so impressed by the performance, at least 5 stations are using this antenna in South India. The list includes vu2TS, vu2DX, vu2KSJ, vu2GHB and myself. In conclusion, I say, it was one of the very interesting and easy to construct Antenna projects I had ever undertaken with such an exciting experience using it in the end. Some wise man from India told the world in the early part of the 20th century, " An ounce of practice is better than a Ton of Talks". I get reminded of those words whenever I recollect the delightful construction experience.
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JPOWELL
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 1, 2009 19:58
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WOW
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I just put this antenna up using it as a inverted V with the apex at 34 feet and each leg 4 feet off the ground. it was real easy to make so I was using my kenwood ts-440s 100 watts and my first contact was on 40 meter and he was in BERLIN holy crap I love this antenna!!!! It is a must for everyone to try.
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NZ4O
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Rating: 5/5
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Feb 25, 2009 14:10
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Good Antenna
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Recently I purchased a W5GI mystery antenna from K4TR antennas at http://kk4tr.tripod.com/index-10.html. The K4TR version is constructed much better than the version from the Wireman.
The multiband antenna performance is better than my old G5RV and works really good on 20 meters.
73 & GUD DX,
Thomas F. Giella, NZ4O
Lakeland, FL, USA
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N2YHN
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Rating: 5/5
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Dec 15, 2008 08:25
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strong performer
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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i recently got the kit version and put it up in an inverted v config up about 60 feet ,i am able to tune pretty much between 10-80 either with the rigs tuner or an outboard palstar , i run an ft-1000mp and fl-7000 putting out about 500-600 watts , i am able to work anything i hear with mostly 5/9-5/9+ reports with marginal band conditions, i haven' t had the chance to see how it will bust a pileup as of yet (have not heard any good dx -peds lately),cant wait to get till band conditions improve. nevertheless i can not say enough about the performance of this antenna, it kicks butt!
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WU8O
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Rating: 5/5
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Jun 27, 2008 08:20
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Low noise? Understatement!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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This is a must try antenna. I put one up last week and can't get over how low my noise is. A friend 6 miles south of me has a G5RV at 50ft. One night we tuned to 14.225 together. He had an S3-S4 noise level and heard no stations. I had less than 1/2 S-unit noise and could fully understand 2 stations talking to each other!
ONE BIG TIP. Add 1/4 wave length of 75 ohm coax to bottom of ladder line for matching on 20M. You will get nearly 1:1 swr on 20m and all other bands will tune much easier. I used RJ-11. Be sure to allow for velocity factor. You will probably need to trim the ladder line also to get the low swr into center of 20m band.
I also realized any coax can be used instead of RG-8X as long as it has a solid center conductor for strength. I used 1/4 inch flexable hardline.
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WB0UZW
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Rating: 5/5
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Jun 20, 2008 18:15
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Very Good Antenna
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I replaced a G5RV with John's Mystery Antenna. I bought the kit. Took a couple hours to assemble and put up. First thing I noticed is how the noise level dropped a couple db and signals were stronger. Next was how easy it is to tune. I have loaded it on 160 with a Palstar AT-Auto but it's touchy on 160 with this little amount of wire. So it's not for 160 and doesn't claim to be. 80 through 6 are great!
It works great. The G5RV will stay on the shelf. I'm going to build a super loop and compare the two. Should be fun.
Enjoy.
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WA2AC
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Rating: 2/5
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Jun 19, 2008 20:50
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MYSTERY
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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The only mystery in this antenna is how you get people to believe that it is any better than a g5rv.I love the gain figures given they dont tell you when there is gain in a wire non rotatable antenna there are nulls which make it extremely directional as you increase in frequency.Over hyped to those who dont know better . Put up a center fed zep and do as well or better
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OM5AWT
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Rating: 5/5
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May 14, 2008 08:57
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Not bad at all..
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I was looking for the way to move the block of flats! (Smiles) because I did not like the layout and the overall building orientation. Obviously, no success there, so my dipole for 20 with number 8-like radiation diagram was not looking the direction I preferred. This antenna came as the answer, just because it acts like so called long dipole at 20m. The difference is not only because the 4 of 6 lobes are finally sending the signal towards desired directions, but also because the 3 dB gain caused by collinear effect, which is expected from long dipole antenna anyway. Is the loop better? Should we talk about lower bands, yes it is. It sure depends what is the orientation and polarization of the loop. Horizontal loop for 80, at 18 meters will sure beat this antenna on 80 in no time. But is it not what we expect from configuration as a such?
Described loop is getting very close to even four square, so it will beat the dipole short or long. Obviously we can't get high enough to achieve collinear effect on 80m band (even though we had a long dipole made for the band). Are we going to compare vertically oriented and vertically polarized loop made for 40m, which will act like super loop on 20m? Yes, such a loop will beat this antenna again, mainly because of very low radiation angle, the dipole type antenna can only dream about. But again, such a loop will beat most of simple yagis also. So what is the conclusion here? Coax sections will bring a bit of double bazooka effect, thus will make it quieter for receive on all bands. Collinear effect will secure the gain normally guaranteed by so called long dipole antenna. This antenna will beat any variation of G5RV, any resonant cut dipole for 20m, and any Windom type antenna. Also, if you can't move the block of flats and layout of the roof, you can move the radiation pattern of the antenna, without moving the antenna itself. Try for your self, I did. Maybe a simple modeling software could help to understand the benefit.
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K9IUQ
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Rating: 3/5
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May 14, 2008 07:30
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Typical Over-Hyped Antenna
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Time owned: months
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I was looking for a backup antenna after losing my 130 center (open feedline)fed doublet to an ice storm. The Mystery antenna looked interesting and after reading the reviews here I was expecting a great antenna - WRONG. The Mystery antenna is not great. I have compared it to my 75 mtr loop and the loop always is 2-3 s units better. It definetly is not as good as the 130 ft doublet was. With coax prices high there is NO reason to build an antenna like this. It is not magical and will not beat any comparable size wire antenna.
Since this antenna requires a tuner you may as well just put up a wire fed with open wire feedline and enjoy better performance..
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