The G5RV HF Antenna

The G5RV HF Antenna

By Pascal VA2PV

Written in French in 2003 for Radioamateur.ca

The G5RV antenna bears his name it’s creator callsign, an English amateur radio operator. This dipole antenna is very popular because of its small size and for the availability or its necessary construction components. The building cost of this type of antenna can vary between $30.00 and $50.00, depending on the length of coaxial cable.

This antenna doesn’t resonate anywhere, buy it will gives you an average yield for 10, 15, 20, 40, 80 meters (HF most popular bands), making it usable for transmission with an antenna tuner (ATU). It is perfect for shortwave listeners (SWL). The antenna is meant to be install in an inverted V or horizontally. The total length is 102 feet (31 meters).

g5rv

Below you will find the parts list needed for the G5RV antenna construction:

103 feet (31.30 meters) of copper wire gauge of #12 or #14, retaining 3 inches (8 cm) for each of the four ends to secure the attach.

30 feet (for 29 feet 6 inches) (9 meters) of 300 ohms cable (pair of parallel conductors formerly used for televisions antennas), keeping 3 inches (8 cm) at each ends to attach.

Coaxial cable of 75 ohms (RG-59 or RG-6 used in cable TV), the length does not matter, use the minimum necessary for better performance.

A PL-259 connector (UHF type connector) for terminating to your radio, for RG-59 and RG-6 you will need a reducer.

Two insulators for the ends of the antenna. You can use a piece of plastic, like a piece of 1.5-inch pipes (3.8 cm) in black PVC (ABS) or even buy a white PVC breadboard and you cut pieces of 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) by 3 inches (8 cm), drill a hole at each end.  Make sure the plastic insulators are not conductive, you can test it into your microwave, if it melts it’s conductive!

Take a piece of the same component use as insulators and make a center insulator. Firmly attach your 300 ohm cable at the center using bolts and weld the parallel cable conductors wires on each side to each piece of copper wire.

You will surely need rope to tie the ends of your antenna to your desired attachment point. Allow enough rope for this.

BEWARE OF ELECTRICAL WIRES! Be careful when installing.

Also be careful for interference, because this type of antenna produces a lot of harmonics and can cause you problems with surrounding neighborhood. By cons, this antenna is a good compromise for restricted areas in space and budget.  It is also a very good antenna for shortwave listener (SWL). Remember that you definitely need an antenna tuner if you want to use it for transmission.

P.S.: It should be noted that the portion of 300 ohms cable must be positioned in vertical and it should not get in contact with metal. It should therefore be suspended in clear space (without touching your lap or metal antenna support).

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Author: Pascal VA2PV