After years of using a tri-bander and high inverted vees for 40 and 80 I
found myself in a situation of putting up a G5RV through a auto tuner from
my old TS-820S. It is only 30 feet off the ground and it is a shortened
version I bought off Ebay. I figured I had a good dummy load but two nights
ago I worked four stations on 75 meters in Europe with 100 watts from
Virginia (on SSB) so I'm not so displeased. Got 59, 59, 58, and 59+15
reports. Maybe I can finish up 5Band DXCC after all!
Good luck & 73,
Ken

wrote in message
oups.com...
As someone who is relatively inexperienced with the hobby, I am amazed
at the confusion and mysticism surrounding the "G5RV" antenna. It
appears to be nothing but a dipole, with a length of "balanced line" to
transform the impedance to a better match for coax at certain
frequencies.

A little consideration reveals that this antenna should suffer from
unwanted return currents unless a balun is used (like any coax-fed
dipole), and substantial loss in the coax at certain frequencies. So
why is this antenna better than two pieces of reasonably long wire
driven with balanced line and a tuner? What am I missing?

-JJ