G5RV Jr. Back in the air.
Today I put the G5RV Jr. back up. As you can see above the feed point is in the clear! It wasn’t before. Hopefully the clear feed point will work out much better for operating QRP. I knew the leaves and branches were reducing the radiation because the tuner settings changed from winter to summer. Although I have not checked it yet I expect to see dramatic changes in the tuner settings now that the tree is gone. If you look at the photo below you can see a wide shot of the antenna. The legs go over the tops of two Pine trees and are tied off. on the left of the picture the end is secured with a three foot bungee cord. It allows a little give with the wind (and falling Mulberry trees) and also has about 6 feet of the UV resistant end rope in a loop and secured to the fence. That way if the bungee breaks, the antenna doesn’t come all the way down. The darker part of the feed line is 300 ohm window line. At the edge of the garage roof it switches to grey RG-8X to the shack. By the way the Jr. is a converted WA2NAN Trutalk 204′ model as I don’t have enough room for that size. It is well constructed and has been in the air for 5 years at 3 different locations. In this photo you can also see the stump of the Mulberry tree and remaining sawdust.
Wide Shot
The right side of the antenna is though the top of a substantially larger Pine tree which is also on a rise in the yard. Below is a a street view of that tree with the antenna tied to the gutter. I know you can’t see it but that’s the idea isn’t it? So you get an idea of why the antenna in the pictures has a slope to it.
Street View
I will post some reports when I give it a try this week. I do have plans for a 31 ft vertical support for an 80 and 160 Inverted L for fall. When it is installed I will have coverage for all HF bands.
