Print

I always look at an antenna in EZNec before I put the time into building it and trying it on the air.

I have had a G5RV up 40' at one end and 30' at the other. I had the chance to instead put the feedpoint up at 50' and bring the ends down to a height of 20' - as an inverted vee.

I expected the performance of this antenna to stink for very long distance dx since its take off angle would be quite high. Looking at a regular inverted vee at 50' in EZNec paints a terrible picture - the antenna looks like a terrible cloud burner on almost all bands from 80 - 10M. That hasn't been the case in actual practice.

In fact, using my homebrew 80 - 10M short hatted vertical dipole (take off angle 20 degrees), the inverted vee G5RV seems to almost equal the performance of the SHVD - but maybe only 1 or 2 S units down from the SHVD. For "closer" DX - i.e. - T33C, ZL7II and C21DL, this antenna beats the SHVD by quite a margin - but the antenna legs are aiming in the West by Southwest direction. ZS on the long path boom in here with this antenna as well (although a wet noodle works on the LP for many bands). There does seem to be some directionality going on for sure. And its quieter than I expected too.

It seems to perform like an antenna I tried not long ago - a homebrewed version of an Alpha Delta DX-A "twin sloper" - which is actually a very good antenna if you want to work DX and stateside - basically a very good compromise "all round" antenna.

I'm wondering if the G5RV inverted vee in reality ends up acting like a twin sloper? My 450 ladder line is 1 foot away from a 50' telescoping pipe that is grounded. I almost think that I should be modelling this antenna as a twin sloper - not as a regular inverted vee. If anyone has an EZNec file for a twin sloper - could you email it to me?

Of course, I am very pleasantly surprised. I do remember a quote "not all DX comes in at the low angle", so maybe that's part of it. Conditions also change, and this Spring, conditions are different than they were last year - quieter, but with lower sunspot "numbers". But very good for all the recent dx-peds.