| W6SSP |
Rating:  |
2021-04-20 | |
| much better antennas out there |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I've had and used a G5RV for over 20 years now.
Its only up 25' and while it was usable, did not realize
how poor its performance was until I built a fan
dipole for 40-10m (no WARC). Then I realized
what I was missing. Converted the G5RV to
75m by tossing the balun and ladder line and adding
a few feet of wire to each end. Once again, was amazed
at the superior performance of the dipole. No tuner
needed either!
Was my G5RV faulty from the factory? Maybe. |
|
| K7ZOV |
Rating: |
2019-09-23 | |
| Even when put up wrong it works |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
First of all I have a number of HF antenna. BuckMaster 7 band HP OCF, 6BTV vertical, 3-Element Yagi (20, 15 and 10 meters) and my strangely built G5RV. It is ONLY about 25 ft up with both ends bend to fit the lot and those ends are at about 12 ft above the ground. To make it even worst the ladder line is coming off at a 45 degree angle to the house. It is terminated with a 6 or 8 turns of coax as a balum and finally the last 40 ft is RG58U. Back in the days I had the OCD Antenna disease I would have model the antenna and probably not put it up do the loses and other factors. But I did and have had a ball with it. But the real surprise is having a antenna that should barely work on 80/75 meters giving me 60 meters and 160 meters. Yes 160 meters. My radio setup is a IC-7300 driving a Elecraft KPA500 AMP and KAT500 ATU. The ATU loads this mess up on ALL band from 160-10 meters with ALL SWR's 1:5 to 1 or less, even on 160 meters. How good is this compromise antenna? In one year using FT8 mostly, I got 47 States confirmed on 160 meters and 49 States on 80 meters. DX:Panama, Mexico, Canada, Wales, St.Lucia, Costa Rica, Spain and Portugal.. Power ranged from 50 watts to 400 watts, average 250-300 watts. Is this one of the best antennas? Not even close. But can it work, even when put up wrong? Hell yes as long as you have ATU like the KAT500 that can load anything you give it.
That all said this is my 3rd G5RV and the other two were actually put up in a flat top clean mount over 30 ft and worked great for years. This one the height was all wrong, the way the ladder line is coming off the antenna is all wrong, the way the wires are run though the yard is all wrong..And in the end I have one hell of a great antenna that not only has given me FT8 and JT65, that make up for signal loss, but also CW and SSB on all bands from 160 to 10 meters.
So if you are considering this antenna type and not sure about it, give it a try. You might be surprised. But make sure you have a manual or ATU that does at least 10:1... |
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| KX2T |
Rating: |
2019-09-22 | |
| was good maybe in 1960 BNT |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| Many years ago when I was first licenced around 1968 a buddy and I built the G5RV antenna for his parents back yard, we were both in our last years in high school but his main interest were the 75m AM phone portion of the band which was occupied between 3.850 to 3.900. Yes the antenna worked good around 3.9 but seemed to lose its luster down lower and the biggest fault was on the higher bands you had to use a trans-match in line which would make the SWR look good but the higher you go in frequency the more power you lose in its efficiency to radiate, so the old saying about swr has some truth to it. The computer modeled version which is called the ZS6BKW is far more efficient of a match at 40,20,17,12 and 10 meter plus with a small mod done on a current balun on its input side you can positively change the band resonance around to the 3.8 portion of 75m. The big issue is if you don't need the tuner in line your not going to lose that power there and therefore have more signal radiated but the antenna. As far as gain on 20 between the two its a toss up but when you look at what really goes out in effective radiated watts the BKW is king and the ole G5RV is simply a wonder of marketing hype, old Varney was not around when the computer modeling became popular but if he was he would agree, the G5RV was good enough for his time alive on this earth. |
|
| ON5HB |
Rating: |
2019-09-21 | |
| Update on past review. |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
My first review was in 2014, it's near 2020 now.
The antenna is still going very strong, it's simply the best multiband antenna in the world.
What ever band you use it for, it will work as long as you don't go below the lowest calculated freq.
What is special about this antenna? Nothing, it's just a dipole and a bit shorter then it should be.
It's lowest is 80mtr, as such it's a bit short, but such low bands do not listen very close on sizes to radiate.
The open-line is just a transformer and doesn't radiate at all. Louis was wrong, dead wrong, he was just very lucky.
Why does it work so well? Simple, the transformer section makes it tune-able.
Does it matter what coax you use? Yes it does, use 75 Ohm or good quality 50 Ohm like Aircell7 or LM400,
Please do not say RG58/213 is good coax, it's not, it's rubbish at high impedances that are not 50 Ohm.
Today I'm using it with max 1KW trouble free, no problems at all.
As i said before, use a good tuner, the LDG1000Pro2 is good, but sadly lacks a bit of range.
For a tube amplifier this is not much of a problem, like the Acom1010 that takes 1:3 after a tuner without any problems.
A big issue is common-mode, build a very good filter, I use 3 meters of ferrite-clamps, yes I do...else common-mode will enter the shack and it sings along on your signal.
Is the ZS6BKW better? NO! It's just a smaller dipole with a bigger transformer, it will have a better SWR (who cares!) but less radiation because the dipole size is smaller. This does make it work far less at 80m and on par at 60m or above.
So what does the open-line do? Well nothing bu transforming the bad SWR's into something a simple tuner can handle, that is it.
So those bad SWR will reduce your power a lot? NO IT DOES NOT, however the quality of the coax does that.
If you use RG58/213 on a G5RV it will cost you a lot of power, this is because it does not handle non-50Ohm very well and on top the velocity is poor, just 66%. Whereas Aircell or LM has 80%+ and so is open-line, not TV-twinline that is just as bad as RG58.
In short:
1: It's just a dipole with a matching section, usable if your tuner can match it for the system to output max power.
2: Use good coax if you do not want to lose your power in the coax, as good coax is the same as open-line.
3: Use a very good common-mode-choke, as it will try to make those currents because of the high SWR!
Is it the best multiband antenna, YES it is if you can't use any bigger, it's on par with a single-band dipole, any band.
Tip for Icom7300 firmware 1.3+ users, set the Icom in Emergency mode and it tunes 1:10+ while still doing 100Wpeak in SSB :-)
Yes this is a good antenna, the ZS6BKW is not as the dipole is by far too short.
Thank you for reading.
Bas.
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|
| K2MMO |
Rating: |
2019-03-23 | |
| Great Antenna for the price |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
I have a G5RV and it works great on all bands. As I work primarily CW this antenna is perfect for me..I have gotten great reports from ham operators all over on all bands except 160m. (I don’t work that band)
I have it installed as an inverted v up approximately 35 feet on a mast that is about 6 feet in the ground.
Can’t say enough good things about it. I highly recommend them for stateside and DX work |
|
| W8JWD |
Rating: |
2018-05-25 | |
| Great Antenna |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| After needing to replace my homebrew G5RV, I purchased and installed the Multiband antenna. After a couple emails with Kerry, I made some adjustments and patiently tuned my MFJ945E. There is no comparison to the old antenna.........I kept hearing "loud and clear" from both US and foreign stations. As a relatively new Ham on the air for a year, thank you Kerry for your help and a great antenna to use with my 100 watt transceiver. |
|
| KF4MKP |
Rating: |
2017-11-04 | |
| great for field day |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| with a tuner you can get a good match and operate. However, most of your transmitter power is wasted as heat in the tuner, and you don't get the radiated power like you would if you have a resonant wire for your specific frequency. However, it works for what it was designed to do. we used one for field day a few years ago and we made a lot of contacts. This is not my first choice for DX-ing, but is a good antenna when you need something up that is quick and easy, like field day or just to have a usable antenna aftern a storm takes down the beam. |
|
| M0KFO |
Rating: |
2015-04-05 | |
| Price & bands covered |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Well, what can you say. It is much maligned and you're told why it doesn't work, but yes it does. I can't complain, £30 for a mid range full G5RV.
On 10w (my licence conditions) I've made Morocco (10m) and Trinidad & Tobago (20m) in the last week. I've also used 160m (remember 10w), not the strongest signal but it can be used. Mines only 20ft high.
I use a 1:1 current balun/line insulator to stop any stray RF and keep the noise floor down. I use it with a MFJ-971, which supposedly can't really make it on 160m, but it does. I'm not saying it is resonant and that the SWR isn't high on some bands, but with the ATU, I get 1:1 across the board 160-10, no movement at all on the meter when I press the PTT.
My advice, buy one to get you going, and later diversify or specialise if you want specific bands, or just leave it up and enjoy your radio. |
|
| N7CYA |
Rating: |
2015-01-19 | |
| Excellent Porduct |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
| My G5RV multi-bander is the best designed dipole I have come across. After fixing a couple MY mistakes with the help of Kerry at Eham.net my antenna is working VERY well. Thanks eham for a great product at a great price, with great customer support |
|
| N3IG |
Rating: |
2014-11-23 | |
| Only Ant. for me |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Been using a G5RV for the past 7 years and never had a need for any other antenna on HF. With a manual or ldg tuner it can be used on any band.
I found the secret to a succesful G5RV is to use 300 ohm not 450 ohm twin lead for the matching section. Most do not know the original plans call for 300. I have used transmission type as well as tv type and they both work depending on the power you are running.
There is no balun on a G5RV. The people that put a balun or use 450 ohm are the ones that will tell you they don't work. |
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