I'll add this to Jack's excellent summary: The open wire feed line on a G5RV is never balanced, since it's an off-center fed wire. That's good, because that feed line contributes a lot by providing vertical, low angle radiation on the lower frequencies. A horizontal wire needs to be up near 100 feet or more to produce good, low angle radiation on 80. Most hams are happy if they can get anywhere near half that. So on 40 and 80 the radiating open wire feeder is a real bonus. The higher-angle radiation from the "flat top" provides shorter skip contacts for good all-around coverage.
So there's no reason to jump through hoops trying to use baluns to provide a balanced feed. I always avoid extra devices in the antenna system because ALL gadgets have some loss, it's just a matter of trying to figure out how much. In this case, I'd forget the baluns. If it would be possible to bring the open wire to the tuner, Jack has the right answer. If not, then the lowest-loss coax you can get and the shortest possible run are next best. Ron AC7AC -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jack Brindle Sent: Sunday, September 26, 2004 1:13 PM Good grief, guys. Paul has the solution already. A G5RV is simply a dipole with some magic consisting of a combination of balanced and coax line which makes it look like 50 ohms on certain frequencies. But Paul has a really nice balanced tuner. Now if it were me, I would eliminate the coax, extending the open-wire feed down to the balanced tuner. Now he will be able to tune the antenna for any frequency he wants. Open wire or ladder line has far less loss than coax, and because of this SWR really doesn't matter. In this case it is the SWR between the tuner and the radio that needs to be matched, since that is where the lossy line is. Paul, it looks like you have the solution at hand, it allows you to maintain your impecunious image and get the operating capabilities you desire. O _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
