Recently I decided; since I was going to string something up for 80 meters
anyway, I would buy a 29 dollar and 95 cent 102 foot long G5RV.  The apex is 
only
about 35 feet.  My 25G 38 foot tower is bolted to the back of my house and 
my 65 foot
tower was taken down so my son could build his house where the old taller 
tower was
installed.  Besides, with 312 total countries already worked, 210 countries 
on 40 meters,
and 138 countries on 80 meters, I figured most of my big DX ing days were 
about over.
So, just in receive mode, here are my findings to date between the R7 
vertical on the roof,
with the base at 18 feet, and the G5RV at 35 feet on the tower about 25 feet 
away.

 The G5RV is not running true to form.  I have a tree in the front yard that 
we tied
the western leg of the wire antenna to in order to get the wire of the G5RV 
off the roof
and it is only about 1.5 feet off the roof at the closest point.  The 
eastern leg of the G5RV
is higher off the ground because, after tying nylon string to the insulator 
which was
already installed on the wire antenna, we were able to run the easterly wire 
out to my
son's large garage and that way keep it higher off the roof and much higher 
off the
ground.  I would prefer having it broadside east and west but my yard width 
simply isn't
wide enough unless I had a 200 foot tower, if you get my drift.  Anyhow, I 
have, thus far,
spent several days comparing the two antennas just by receiving.  I have a 
coax switch
for up to 4 antennas by Alpha Delta that is built like a brick outhouse and 
I have to two
antennas next to each other so I can quickly switch from one antenna to the 
other to
compare signal strength.

 As suspected, it is a toss up.  Yes, the wire antenna is much quieter but 
that goes
without saying when comparing signals to a vertical.  However, about 50 
percent of the
time, signals on the vertical are louder by and S unit.  I was listening to 
a strong European
running a U S pile up last night and the European was definitely stronger, 
due to the low
angle radiating pattern a vertical produces, than the G5RV.  Stateside was a 
different
story.  I check dozens of stateside signals.  Almost all west coast stations 
were louder by
one to three s units on the G5RV.  This was not always the case for east 
coast stations on
the other hand.  Don't forget I'm a whole lot closer to the west coast in 
Colorado than the
east coast so that has something to do with it.  Keep in mind, the line 
noise drops
considerably when switching over from the vertical to the wire antenna, too, 
but again,
that's common for verticals.  I mean, they pick up all types of man made 
noise no matter
what.  I used a G5RV years ago with the apex at 50 to 55 feet, broadside 
east and west,
and I worked DX on every band; finding 10 meters, on the other hand, was the 
worst.  I
worked Vk, ZL, and Japan regularly with 700 watts with the G5RV on 80 and 75 
meters,
however, so it is a good radiator if you use a tuner.  If you don't have a 
tuner, forget it.
The SWR from 80 to 6 meters runs from off the scale at the top of 75 meters, 
for some
reason, to 5 to 1 in other 80 meter locations, and less, when you get to 20 
where, as the
book says, it should be 2 to 1 and so it is.  15 through 6 is runs higher 
because the 102
feet of wire is running multiple untuned wave lengths the higher you go. 
Why doesn't it
seem to work as well on 10 meters?  Good question.  The answer is related to 
the
multiple wave lengths of wire which creates directivity.  So, in short, the 
longer the wire,
the better, and worse, it may radiate in various directions on 10 meters or 
higher bands.
The need of a good tuner is, with the G5RV, absolutely paramount.  Just for 
the fun of it,
I tried tuning it up on 160M cw and got 18 to 1 so that was interesting. I 
wanted to buy
the larger of the two G5RV antennas for 160 meters, too, but I just don't 
have enough
tower height, although my yard is long enough, and besides, I can run a 
shortened tuned
sloper off my tower for 160 and solve the trouble of space.  In years past, 
I have, for that
matter, carefully, and I do mean carefully, because the G5RV is super 
sensitive when
tuning that short wire on 1.8 MHz, tuned my G5RV but I worked a lot of stuff 
with it
tuned on 160 meters and no amplifier so it can be done.  Keep in mind, a 
vertical has
more QSB, fading on signals, than a wire no matter how high, or low it may 
be.  So it
works this way.  If space is the problem, get a multiband vertical.  Oh, 
what about
transmitting?  It will be comparable to the receiving capabilities 
described.  It's just nice
to have a different antenna to switch to when desired.  Verticals are, of 
course, more
notorious about generating RFI and TVI but if you want to forego that 
problem, move
about 35 miles out into country where your nearest neighbor is a good 10 
miles distant
from your antenna farm and where your 300 foot tower stands with your pup 
tent staked
out at the bottom of the tower where you live.  Who needs a house if you 
have 30 acres
and a 300 foot tower?  A small tent works fine for your ham shack.  Spend 
all the money
you made off the sale of your in-city house on your tower and antennas. 
Tents are cheap.
Sell your wife with the house, too.  She'll just get in the way of your 
hamming.

Phil.
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