G5RV up at 54ft

Well, the temporary G5RV was such a success, I decided to make a more permanent install with 14 gauge wire.  I found out that the reason my original G5RV resonance was off, was i needed to tune the 300Ohm feed ladder line before adding the dipole legs.

The 31ft that most sites state for a G5RV was for a different velocity factor wire (like 450Ohm Ladder line), then the 300Ohm twinlead wire I got from Radio Shack (p/n 15-1175).  The stuff I got was supposed to have a Vf=0.82 according to the website and it calculates out to be 28.5ft, but i followed the instructions on vk1od’s website about optimizing a G5RV, which suggested put a 50Ohm resister on the end of the twinlead, and tuning it to 14.150Mhz with my MFJ-269 to get a more precise length. In the end  I had to cut off 3ft, shortening it to 28ft, which explains why resonance was so low.   Then I added the 51ft legs of the dipole, and tuned them to 14.150Mhz too.  Once I got it up on the roof, I get a 1.6SWR at 14.150Mhz.

I also decided to add a Unadilla W2AU 1:1 balun at the bottom of the G5RV, and have a 6 ft RG8x cable to the LDG Z11ProII tuner with 6xAA batteries inside, which then feeds a 50ft RG8x cable into the house to the radio. If you notice in the picture,  I have a FairRite Mix 31 Clamp-on choke with 6 turns to prevent common mode currents too. I keep the tuner in the box, out of the weather, but I’ll eventually get something a little more water tight.

I’ve been doing A/B antenna test between the DX-CC and G5RV and the biggest difference is in the noise level. The DX-CC constantly has about a 2S higher noise level then the G5RV across all the bands.  But the biggest improvement with using the G5RV has got to be 80m band, which I can hear stations, that would otherwise be buried in the noise on the DX-CC.  I think this has to do with the traps shortening the antenna and the fact the DX-CC is 20ft lower, probably getting more noise from the house electronics too.

My wife is a bit disturbed by the looks of the tall antenna, but I’m gunna keep it up there, as long as I am active looking for QSO’s or find something with better performance.

DX is looking good on 20m into Europe, which has always been difficult for me.

Next project is a 80m loop.

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Temporary G5RV at 54ft

I put up the G5RV up on the 27ft pole, which puts it 20 ft above the DX-CC.

Resonance is off, maybe the wire stretched, I probably should put up the 14 gauge wire.

Here is the current resonances: 3.673Mhz @2.3SWR, 6.671Mhz @2.5 SWR, and 13.542Mhz @1.8 SWR.

I’ve gotten a few DX contacts on 15m JT65: JH3OWW (Japan) and LU8EX (Argentina) with strong reports of -06 and -09 respectively.

The signals are quite clear over the DX-CC, especially with 20ft more height it is hearing alot more with a lower noise level.  The fact that the G5RV is so light, with no balun needed at the top, the Jacklite pole does a great job holding it up.

 

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G5RV in backyard at 27ft up

I decided to make a cheap full size G5RV, using 31 ft of Radio Shack 300 Ohm foam core twinlead (100ft = $20), which is alot better then what was on the RadioWavz G5RV that I used to have that fell apart.

I used 102ft of telephone cross-connect wire, which is very small, maybe 24 gauge,  for the legs.  Mostly because it was free.  14 Gauge wire is about $53 per 500ft.  If the tests go well and I want to upgrade, I’ll put in the 14 gauge wire as a more permanent install.

I used the 27ft Jacklite pole, (31ft with the top 2 sections off, which makes it 27ft). The corners of the property are 98ft apart, so it just fits the 2 51ft legs of the G5RV. It is in a inverted V with feedline curved to the roof. Not sure what the radiation pattern is, probably skywave, since it is so low.

So far it looks like it is pretty deaf on 20m, a little better on 40m, and almost 1S better on 80m.

Next plan is to put it up on top of the chimeny, which would put the top at about 27ft+27ft = 54ft. Thats about 20ft higher then the DX-CC, I expect the G5RV will perform significantly better at that height.

 

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[CANCELED] Plans for a vertical on the hill behind my house

So I was considering putting a vertical up behind my house.

But after considering the difficult of installing radials and not having written permission to install the antenna, I decided to not do it.

Below is a picture of what the profile of the hill looks like.

 

Here is a terrain map of the hills around my house (at the red pin):

Facing north:

Facing East:Facing South:Facing West:

 

 

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40/20/10m dipole with trapped 80m- Alpha Delta DX-CC replica

Ok, so I just went ahead and made it just like the Alpha Delta DX-CC, which is a 40/20/10m with trapped 80m.  It is also resonate on 15m too.  It is setup as a slightly sloped inverted-V. I installed a 10ft 1.25″ conduit as a mast on the chimney, and put a pulley on top so I can hoist up the antenna without to much trouble.

 

It took me about 5 tries to get all the bands tuned.

10m leg was 8’4″ from center insulator to fold back point, which tuned to  28.200Mhz @1.2 SWR

20m leg was 16’6″ from center insulator to fold back point, which tuned to 14.111Mhz @1.1 SWR

40m leg was 33’4″ from center insulator to trap, which tuned to 7.100Mhz @ 1.1 SWR

The 80m leg, from trap to end was 3′. which tuned to 3.72Mhz @ 1.0 SWR.

15m was also resonate at 20.9Mhz @1.2SWR.

80m is very narrow tuning, SWR goes up to 6 when moving +/- 100Khz, but I have a LDG Z11 Pro II tuner for the rest of the 80m band.

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80-40-20m trapped dipole

I added a trap to the 40-20m fan dipole, so it can get 80m.

Here is a iPhone Panorama photo of the antenna mounted 6 ft above chimney at home.

 

Unfortunately the 40m is too short resonate at 7.35Mhz , and I need 16″ add to it, which means a new wire.  20m is tuned at 7.150 Mhz, and 80m at 3.750mhz.

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40m/20m Fan Dipole

I basically made the same 40m dipole from http://www.amateurradio.bz/40m_v.html and added a 20m fan dipole to it, so I can work both bands

I built the same fed point connector described by: http://www.amateurradio.bz/feedpoint.html

I plan on using mostly digital modes, so I tuned them for 14.070Mhz and 7.076Mhz.

I’m pretty happy with how it turned out, I can already see better gains on 40m over the G5RV Jr..

Using the FLEX-1500, the SSB is booming in:

I am thinking of adding trap coil to the 40m wire to bring in 80m band.

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Flex-1500 SDR Radio

I could not resist getting another SDR radio, so I went with the FLEX-1500

http://www.flex-radio.com/Products.aspx?topic=F1.5k_features

I no longer had an extra power supply, so I ran the power cable down to the PC’s power supply, to the 12volt rail, and it seems to work good.

I had to install Virtual Audio Cable and Virtual Serial Port (VSP Manager) in order to get everything working with HRD, DM780 and JT65, which is kinda annoying, but works fine.

I had a Radiowavz G5RV Lite on the roof, but the connections on the antenna had failed in 3 spots, I re-soldered and still not working right, so I went to my old G5RV Jr, which works ok.

Since this Rig only puts out 5watts, I think it time to put up a more efficient antenna for 20m and 40m, so I get my whole 5watts worth in QRP.

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Created a Yagi DualBand 2m/70cm from old TV Antenna

I ended up building a Yagi DualBand from an old TV Antenna

I was inspired by the videos at: http://amateurradio.bz/tri-band_yagi.html

Since I had a 80″ boom I decided to create my own custom measurements, I used 440Mhz and 146Mhz on a 80″ boom and got the calculations from this Yagi Calculator at:

http://www.k7mem.com/Electronic_Notebook/antennas/yagi_vhf_quick.html

It came out to be 6-elements on 2m (146Mhz) Estimated Gain = 9.165 dBd and 9-elements on 70cm (440Mhz) = 11.311 dBd.

Took me about 4 hours of labor to put together.

After getting it up on the rotator at work, I tested it with my recently purchased MFJ-269 Antenna Analyzer.

The SWR on 2m is 1.0 at 148Mhz, and between 1.1 and 1.4 SWr on the whole 440Mhz band.

There seems to be alot of crackling on some frequencies, not sure what the issue is, though the signal strength is S9++.

The Yagi beats the Log Periodic by 2-S on 148Mhz, when pointed at my house in Brea, but the Elk beats the Yagi by 3-S on 440Mhz. Maybe it’d be better to separate the 2 yagi’s onto 2 booms and use a duplexer to split the signal.

 

 

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Mounted the Elk to the roof at work on Antenna Rotator

I put up the Elk Log Periodic Dualband 2m/70cm antenna up on the roof at work, and wow! I can now hit repeaters in Bakersfield, Santa Barbara, and San Diego.  I have also been able to hear SO-50 and AO-27 satellites as they passed over, still havent been able to hit ISS though.

I plan on building my own 2m/70cm Yagi from an old TV Antenna I tore apart, and I’ll keep the Elk in my portable kit.

 

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