G5RV antenna.
This is a popular antenna sold on the market and I know many hams are using it, I for one have used these antennas in a Field day scenario using CW and 100 watts. The Tri-State Amateur Radio Society purchased two of these antennas for use at Field day and from a user this is what I found.
Most of you know I am an avid dX chaser and I normally rate an antenna system as to how well it performs with replies from DX stations. Since FD does not for the most part involve DX stations other then Canada we had the opportunity to rate this antenna as to how it performed on various bands.
I began a four hour shift on cw using 40 meters, I found the G5RV did well at a height of about 30 feet, we had used a couple of trees for support and raised the middle as high as we could get it. This of course involved ropes and dare say the installation might have been better, but then again this is FD,
For about two hours I found I was making many contacts, I would call CQ FD and have an answer just about every time, once that slowed down a little i used the hunt and pounce method and indeed we had a lot of success.
I noticed I needed the West and Midwest multipliers so I decided to change bands and see what I could work. My first choice was ten meters and a few years back the band was open very well with lots of loud signals in the CW band. I called CQ FD no response,tried again and still no response. After a total of ten times it became apparent no one was hearing me, so I decided to try the hunt and pounce method. I heard a loud station in 6 land and called, they responded to someone else, tried again, no luck, after six times I did receive a W9 question mark, sent the call W9OG several times, only to find out the station was calling CW again. Apparently, nothing heard and they moved on to louder stations. So far, not effective on ten meters, tried calling other stations with the same result.
Moved to 15 meters band open, but same results as on ten meters, no replies to CQ FD and no response from stations called. In reality not effective on two bands, went to twenty, at least we got some responses, but we had to struggle to make the contacts. Several repeats of calls, and reports, rating on this band moderately effective, not setting the either on fire.
Went back to 40, starting making contacts with success once again and stayed on 40 until my shift was over for the day. The next year I tried the same scenario and had the identical results, no response and antenna ineffective on those upper bands.
This rating could have been propagation, however many signals were heard on 10 and 15 meters. The height above ground may have been a factor in this rating, plus higher power may have produced better results.
Lastly the location was not the best, we were in a park, yet had clear shots to most directions including The West and Midwest,
From a Dx chaser’s perspective if we rate this antenna with ten being the best results and 1 being the worst, we have to give this one a four. If it cannot cut it on stateside contacts the end results with long haul will indeed be poor.
I am not telling you to avoid this antenna, it may work fine at your location, it may be a performer on ten and 15, you may have it up much higher then we did, plus your power levels may be higher then 100 Watts. Before purchasing, I would contact other users and see what their results were on 10, 15, and 20 prior to investing the amount of the sale price.
