| AC4BN |
Rating:  |
2011-09-23 | |
| Excellent antenna! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I own two G5RVs from WA2NAN, and they are excellent antennas. The first one I bought was the 102 foot 80-10 meters, and I was very impressed with the construction quality, and the price is reasonable. I continue to depend on this antenna for 80m and 40m (I have a directional antenna for 20-10m). I have had no problems with the antenna, which has been up for two years, and I am getting excellent reports with it.
For the second G5RV I ordered WA2NAN’s G5RV Jr., which has a total length of 51 feet, for 40m - 10m, which I planned to use with my camper. Unfortunately, he shipped me the full size G5RV, and I didn’t notice that it was the wrong antenna until I went camping, and used it for two days. The antenna comes neatly coiled up in three coils, the coax, the ladder line, and the two antenna wires. At that point WA2NAN would not take it back so that he could ship me the short version which I ordered. I was a little miffed but I ended up shortening the two wires myself to 25.5 feet on each side, and shortening the ladder line from 31 to 17 feet, and it works fine, it’s an excellent antenna, even as an inverted vee with the vertex only 20 feet or so above my camper. However, I felt he should have been willing to take it back and send me the antenna I ordered. That is the only basis for my rating of 4. |
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| N1EJH |
Rating: |
2011-09-22 | |
| Killer Antenna |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I own all three sizes of this antenna. They are used at different location's. One is at my summer home on the coast of Maine. I'm 200ft back from the water. Everybody knows how salt water has no mercy on any metal except stainless and even that needs care. The antenna has been up for 5 years, that's 5 winters too. We get some pretty nasty winter storms on the coast, I have pickup the rocks that make it to lawn. Kerry's antennas have never failed me. The only mod I made was to use liquid rubber on any exposed copper for the one at the beach.I have no center support, there are no trees on the beach |
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| WG2N |
Rating: |
2011-09-21 | |
| Great antenna |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| Two years in NJ I have tied two trees together with this 204 ft version of the G5RV. Still looks new and has been through blizzards hurricanes and such. Made contacts worldwide on most bands with the antenna at 50 feet. Many dont like the G5RV, thats OK. but it works just fine. |
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| KJ4DKT |
Rating: |
2011-09-21 | |
| FOLLOW-UP |
Time Owned: N.A. |
| In all fairness to Kerry, although the antenna rusted apart, it worked well when it did work. The other day I repaired it and hung it up on my brothers tower at 40 ft and connected it to 240 ft of RG 213 and has very low swr on all bands. I am still disappointed at the quality of workmanship,but am again satisfied at the performance. Next time I will take the time to build my own. |
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| KD8EZU |
Rating: |
2011-08-23 | |
| I hate this guy! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I would like to get a new antenna. After 3 years of ice storms, super hot sun irradiated daya, 60+MPH winds for hours and weeks on end. I figured I take this down and show the wifie how bad a condition it's in, and how I need a new antenna..., easy as pie.. wire antenna's never last long anyway. Right?
Examined it yesterday and could not believe the condition of it. Just about perfect. And it's been yanked, pulled ( even the ladderline) and abused by me so many times that I swore it would snap. No such luck, might as well try to break an anvil,or find an honest politician.
Honestly, where and how does this guy get the materials and put them together so well?
So ,my Tru-Talk G5RV is once again back up ( now about 40 feet ) and is once again doing it's boring , efficient , making DX, self. No new Caroline Windom, No Mystery Antenna.. NO NEW NOTHING. The wife's just not buying the story.
Thanks a lot Kerry for your antenna, Thanks for dashing my dreams for a new toy. Just great!! :>(
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Earlier 5-star review posted by KD8EZU on 2009-10-05
I took a chance ( based on the reviews here ) and plunked down my $80.00 (that's with shipping) for WA2NAN's G5RV. I had a little bit of a wait, as he was out of raw materials, but the antenna arrived within a reasonable time.
The quality of this antenna just oozes out and I have to say I was impressed. I will go out on a limb and say this is a antenna that will last for at least 10 years if mounted with common sense and care. No cheap connections and the materials used are top notch. I especially liked the fact that the coax was already secured to the ladderline feed wire and the amount of coax provided is generous. The coax connector was also silver plated which is a nice touch.
Mine is up 38 feet with the ladderline feed element at least 15 feet above ground. My antenna " arms" are a semi inverted "V" ( almost a flat top) with each one about 25 feel or more off the ground.
How does it work?
All my rigs run barefoot ( poor ham, no moola, dinero, jingles ) and vary between two TS-830S's , a TS-440S, and an FT-857D.
I noticed an improvement with reception almost immediately, and to be truthful, a little bit more background hiss. The increase in reception is worth it though. As for transmitting, I am VERY happy with my experience with this G5RV. I do not even get excited anymore with contacts into Europe and the West Coast. I had my very first JA contact the other day and I was 5/5 to him. Never spoke to a JA before with my other wire antenna's. All this despite the poor propagation we are experiencing at present
I can tune from 80-6 meters with my LDG- Z100 tuner or the built-in tuner of my TS-440S. Sure.., no G5RV will work all frequecies perfectly, but the beauty of Louis Varney's original design for an inexpensive multi-band antenna still works for thousands of hams
It's a mistake to believe that because wire antenna's can be made that to pay $50-$60 for one is a waste of time. WA2NAN's G5RV is a complete unit with nice components that are assembled with the objective of being a "whole system" where the quality of the sum of all parts equals a total quality finished unit.
Trust me, I'm a cheapskate and hate to part with money if I can make an item myself. I can say without reservation that I could not have made this antenna (where does he get his supplies?) as well as WA2NAN.
I'm enjoying my G5RV by WA2NAN and recommend it to others also .
It is the G5RV that others have to use as an example of how to build a G5RV.
73's
KD8EZU
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| WK1N |
Rating: |
2011-07-29 | |
| Stunningly Good |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I am truly stunned by the quality of the reports that I am getting on my G5RV 102 ft'er. I am scratching my head for real. I get many 10 over 9 reports and many DX stations that comment on my "big signal". If I can hear them, I can work them. I have even created contacts by calling CQ DX on 20 Meters and have had stations come back to my signal when the band is otherwise quite. The funniest this happened this evening, I was calling CQ DX and a station from California came back to say I was wasting my time, "the band was dead". Within 10 minutes of his call I worked Greece and Slovenia! I cannot tell you how delighted I am to have this small, nearly invisible antenna in my yard. I am only running 100 watts and the antenna is positioned at about 35 feet and running about 15 degrees east of north and west of south. Twenty meters has not been good for the week I have had it up, but I have still worked over 15 countries including Asiatic Russia. |
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| N9GZ |
Rating: |
2011-07-20 | |
| Second review |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
In my previous review, I incorrectly stated that the antenna came with only 45' of coax. I decided to measure it and discovered to my great embarrassment that it was indeed 75' in length. I apologize to Kerry for my error. I am more than pleased with the antenna. I am glad I purchased it.
thanks Kerry. |
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| M0XIG |
Rating: |
2011-07-14 | |
| Well constructed and reliable |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
I bought the 102' version last year to use on my Special Event 'Shutter Telegraph' stations. It is very well constructed and I have had no issues either with its construction or operation. I use it for a week at a time.
I have always had good reports and use it with a Palstar AT2K tuner.
In fact I'm thinking of buying another this winter!
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Earlier 5-star review posted by M0XIG on 2010-09-20
This antenna is very well constructed and I am impressed with the build quality.
I use the antenna for portable operation for Special Events and with the Palstar AT2K makes an excellent combination. I wanted the antenna particularly to get me on the 80m band and it tunes up 1:1 without any problem. I have had some excellent results and reports on this band and I am very pleased. I use a 50 foot fibreglass mast at the centre of the antenna to raise it to 45 feet and the ends are between twenty and thirty feet. I have no RF in the shack at this height. I'm looking forward to the next event and confident it will give me even better results. Congratulations Kerry on a fine product! |
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| KD8BZY |
Rating: |
2011-06-23 | |
| 296 DXCC Entities |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| Except for a vertical I keep for just in case purposes, the WA2NAN True-Talk G5RV Antenna is the only HF antenna I have used since getting back on the air in August 2005. I have both the 102 ft. and 204 ft. versions. Both are WA2NAN True-Talk. I have in the past 5 years 9 months worked 296 DXCC entities with these two antennas alone, the better half of them probably running 100 watts out. No reason not to someday achieve all entities using only the True-Talk G5RV. The only issue I have had was when a graduated to full power a couple years back. I had to widen the spacing between the coax inner connector and shield at the junction it connects to the twin lead feed line. before I made that mod it took all of the 1500 watts output to cause a failure. It was easy to fix and has not failed since. You do need a tuner though when using G5RV antennas. 73 and best DX KD8BZY / Roger |
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| WA8DFC |
Rating: |
2011-04-25 | |
| It works well. |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| After several years of inactivity, I decided to get active again. My 25 year old G5RV wasn't much good (surprise!). I started reading reviews & asking around. I ended up ordering the True-Talk 102' G5RV on Ebay. It arrived within the time stated. It was as pictured & written up. Kerry sent an email when it was shipped. I have not had to contact him since I received it, because it worked OK following his instructions. I did use the RF choke as he suggested. One end is at 55' & the other at 15'. My old Drake MN-4 tuner allows me to work 80-10. I make contacts with my 100 watt rig. I have used it about 3 weeks & I am satisfied. |
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