Thank you for sharing your contacts with the vertical.
It seems to depend on band conditions and prorogation I guess.
I talk very little now. just try to see if the rig and antenna are working then I am satisfied to listen.
Was reading more in the ARRL publications today about dipole antennas. The author states that the antenna elements must be away from tree limbs. My G5RV is IN a tree so that explains why it is not working too well. Am working now on a way to get it out. The storms the last few days have really tossed it around.

I received an antenna switch for my old FT-757GX today.
Still have two forty foot towers to decide the site for and erect. My work is cut out for me. No shortage of things to try.
Having fun every day.

73
clyde
kk4ywi

p.s. - Vagabond number 656 - net at 2:30 on 2 meters Monday thru friday

Clyde, try this, it might help give you some idea on your ground mount. Go to Hy-Gain 18 AVT check out the PDF and it explains the radials, I think, and shows you some idea of how to cut them out and place them down.

I am not always sure I agree with things I've read concerning the G5RV and things about trees, like I said before I think as long as it is NOT in contact with a tree directly or leafs or limbs, from what I have experienced they work as well near a tree as they do away from them. Metal Roofs now is a different story I think. Getting back to trees if the tree is wet course it's conductive and IF the G5 is in contact with it then it might cause some troubles. Otherwise in most cases I believe HF transmissions would either pass through or not really be deflected that greatly to see any noticing differences in either transmission or reception.

Like I mentioned, G5's are not one of my favorite antenna's but to each his own. I prefer a single band antenna cut for what I like best...Right now I am experimenting with the vertical, it needs more work to help weather it, other than that, It seems to do a fairly good job. Got Siberia tonight with it, so that says something about it. Granted what you mentioned does play a part but the antenna pays a huge part as well, as does grounding.

Try the PDF..

Peace
73
God Bless

Thanks for the help.
I will put some more radials in the ground over the next months at the lengths suggested.
Then I will experiment with different heights at the feed point around 12 inches.
Would probably try one of the 18 ATV antennas if it comes along.

I like the dipole antenna and will continue to experiment with different designs until I find one that works well. Usually my receive signal level increases when I go to the dipole but not always.

Right now I need to get these towers painted and put them up. If I am going to stretch a dipole between them how far apart should they be do you think? The 80 m dipole is about 135 feet so i am thinking at least 200 feet.

If you need help working on your antenna please let me know. I will be glad to help.

73
clyde
kk4ywi

Morning Clyde, thanks for the response and again thanks for the offer to help. Might take you up on that in the future, right now I am pretty squared away.
Last night I had a pretty bad night dealing with pain issues, was up and near 2 and stayed up will daylight. Gosh, sleep is good when it gets around to me. LOL!

Okay, I am not sure about the newer AVT antenna's because I have not seen or had one in my hands. Early in the AM I got to looking for information on them. I read a lot of reviews, well most of them say the MFJ version is really crappy made. They bought out Hy-Gain a while back as I understand and what they did was go back and grab some of the older Hy-gain Designs and of course they put their own spin on them.

From what I gathered they really made them cheap, the aluminum is thin and the plastic they've used is not nearly as strong as the older Hy-gain. The coil forms crack and break so I read where one guy bought one, had it up a short time and it broke in half. Well, he had fair results with it before it broke so he ordered a new one. Why he did that I don't know, but anyways, so the story went, he got the new one and modified it and made it much stronger replacing certain sections and using different plastic. I would have just used the broke one I suppose but anyways he did a lot to the new one and again mod'ed it for a couple of extra bands. He claimed to get excellent reports on it after the mods and re-do.

Reason I was telling you this while it seems off topic is because I feel it would be best to just look for an old one rather than the newer ones.
Once in a whiles you might see an old one on Ebay if you are in the least bit interested.


Addressing the Dipole, yes I like Dipoles, easy to make and fairly cheap. I believe one reason you see a jump in receive on Dipole is because it's plain is horizontal. Here in the states a lot of stations run Horizontal and for good reasons I suppose. Back years ago I read some place that Horizontal was the best to go for long distance working.

Too, I think a lot of hams have given the Verticals for HF a bad rap, so guys run horizontally due to not liking verticals.

From what my experience has been Horizontal plain antennas are really good for their work and they're more forgiving and not so picky about the area around them. Granted a lot of things can cause them to go screwy but still they're more forgiving.

Verticals are not so forgiving, they're much harder to deal with and are very picky about their earth. I read an entire article concerning soil conditions and grounding issues this morning. Some of it was boggling and ways over my head. But the jest of it was, basically the soil conditions paid a huge deal with the verticals ground mounted. They've gotten a bad rap, so Hams Choose the Horizontal. While 11 meter ops go vertical, and use antenna's like Antron 99's and get danged good results. The A99 works great for 10 meters and I have heard they work great for 15 and 20 meters as well. Granted again CB'ers get a bad rap too but some of them are as serious about their stations as we are, that said some of them are breaking the law to have those big old stations. LOL and I guess they get the deserved rap they have, I don't know not for me to judge them or anyone.

Point is a man's got to work on his vertical a lot more than he does his dipole, I guess.
At the farm I'd guess I moved mine a 100 times over the years trying to get it to work better. But never really got as interested in it as I have as of late. I guess a huge reason I got so interested in it was because we moved and I did not have Any antenna's up. I was not able to really put anything up and then I thought about that ground mount. That was something I thought I could handle alone after I got somebody to drive the mast pipe down. So that is why I mess about with it so much now I guess. Heck I used it for a couple of months and did not have any radials on it at all but then Rudy helped me out and I got the radials installed which to be honest was done in a hurry and not as neat as I would like. One reason for that was I did not want to waste time on something I did not know would benefit my antenna system. Now that I know it really helped and made a danged huge difference we're going to fix that system in a much better fashion. That said, it's been a learning curve for months now, try it and if it works proceed, if not go back and try something else has been my motto.

really this has been on going now for months...right now I am taking a break from it and just trying it out.

I got 2 New Zealand Stations last night and I got 2 Siberian Stations, a French Station and a couple down in around Mexico. I was pretty happy with that so I got another idea I want to try with the vertical next...So we'll see what that does!

Good Luck, and thanks by the way for giving me something to think about, while it might not have benefited you it has me a great deal. In fact it has been a blessing!

God Bless

Thank you again for your help.
I am physically able to do lots of things and would love to help you if I can. Just let me know ahead of time, I may be off riding my motorcycle.
I hate to hear you could not sleep. Hope that gets better for you soon.

Took your advice and read the manual on the 18 ATV then looked up the new one MFJ sells. The write-up in the 18 AVQII manual states that the radials for a ground mounted vertical do not have to be resonant. They should be made as long as you can for the lowest frequency you want to work and they will work fine for higher frequencies. My radials are 2 inches in the ground. I made 4 of them 66 feet long and the rest are 40 to 50 feet long. After much analysis I have decided this antenna will never work on 80 meters. It will not work well on 40 meters but may match with a really good tuner.

My next dipole will be a fan constructed using the SRI research design. The G5 will be taken down and stored for later work.

I will be scanning the bands for you tonight to see who you can work. That is if my antenna can see you from here.

73
clyde
kk4ywi

I have used a G5RV November 2014. . It is only about 20 feet in the air and between the roof and a tree. I have it going directly to my MFJ Versa Tuiner and I have worked 74 countries (Mixed SSB/CW) with 61 confirmed.