"Thierry" Thierry, see http://www.astrosurf.com/lombry/ wrote in message ...
"Reg Edwards" wrote in message
...
The moral is - DON'T USE A G5RV.
Specially one with any coax in the feedline.
If you've bought one, you've been robbed.
Hi,
At first sight you never uses a G5RV. You opinion is completely false and
will induce novices (and other if I beleive you) in error.
Have you ever actually compared a G5RV to a coax fed dipole on 80m?
I'm talking A/B tests quickly using an antenna switch. His opinion is
most certainly not false. My first hand tests confirm his opinion.
Yes, I didn't make the G5RV's and Windoms that were tested against,
but I wouldn't bother using something like those anyway. It's not my
fault the the ones I tested against were poorly engineered. They were
all storebought antennas. Most made by a co. that uses a state for
part of it's name.
So read this and learn from the master, G5RV himself :
http://www.astrosurf.com/lombry/qsl-g5rv.htm
Even he usually recommended you do away with the junk, and run all
ladder line if using for all bands. The antenna as he designed was for
20m only.
I confirmed over 250 DXCC in one year with the G5RV at less than 100 W PEP
from 80 to 10m, including WARC. It works !
That doesn't mean anything though. You could do that with a mobile
antenna and 10w. How many qso's an antenna makes is not a good
judgement of performance.
Not as a beam of course. But very
well for what it cost (about 100 euros). That stays an excellent
investissment,
I think making a dipole from your own wire, is more cost effective.
Not to mention the best performer, being most won't ruin it by adding
a micky mouse feedline setup.
not necessary if you are hunting DX (away that to say 8000 km
in low solar acticvities like now) or want to participate in all contests
(that stays a dipole than I work barefoot) but for ragchewing in local QSO
(inside a radius of to say 5000 km) it is perfect.
No, it's far from perfect. On 75m phone, where most are closer than
500 miles, my coax fed dipole will eat that G5RV for lunch, if it's
the type and fed like the ones I usually see.
With an average emitting
power of 50W or so, most hams receive me in voice 59 or more, even 57 up to
VE, east K, VP5, FY, YB. More far the signal decreases (53 and less). But
this is a beam after all.
Again, signal reports are not an accurate indicator of antenna
performance, unless you quickly A/B with a switch with a comparison
benchmark antenna like the dipole. If you are two S units under me,
you would still make most all the same contacts I would. You would
just be 2 s units weaker. On an average radio, 2 S units is probably
about 10 db or so. I say this, because most all that change from 100w
to 1kw, usually increase by about 2 S units on most radios I see. When
I compared my dipole to one windom at a field day, and saw 2 S units
better performance on the dipole, just in the loss of efficiency with
the windom, that means he would have to run a KW to equal my 100w.
Thats no way to live. Just because they can still make most of the
qso's I do, doesn't mean the antenna is just as good. If I'm 20 over 9
somewhere, you would still be 10 over 9 if you used your antenna at my
qth. MK