Mine isn't much better, I'd say that's pretty typical.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "T Behler" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, December 27, 2007 9:09 PM
Subject: more G5RV stuff


> Hi, all.
>
> Can someone tell me what an acceptable SWR picture would be for a 102-foot
> G5RV antenna?
>
> I re-oriented my G5RV antenna today, by making the ladder-line run pretty
> much vertically from the antenna feed-point at the top of my 35-foot 
> tower,
> to the coax that then goes into my shack from the base of the tower.  I
> checked the connections between the ladder-line and the coax feedline, and
> they still seem to be good.
>
> My SWR's are a bit better, and the auto-tuners on both my IC746 and 
> Kenwood
> TS480 now tune the antenna on 40 meters (which I couldn't say before), but
> the SWR's still seem quite high to me.
>
> On 40 meters, I get an SWR anywhere from about 5 to 1 down to about 4 to 
> 1.
>
> The antenna has its best SWR readings on 20 meters, which you'd expect, 
> but
> even here, I can't get the SWR to go much below about 1.8 to 1 in the 
> center
> of the band.
>
> Again, at least now, the auto-tuners in both of my HF rigs will tune the
> antenna, but I'm wondering whether it's even safe or wise to use the 
> antenna
> under these conditions.
>
> 73 from Tom Behler:  KB8TYJ
>