I checked Tom and I have no continuity which I expected. You might
want to double check the connector.
PatAt 10:48 AM 8/19/2012, you wrote:
>Hi, all.
>
>Well, I tried the G5RV out at the RV over the week-end, and alas, no joy. I
>have some theories about what the problem was, which I'll get to shortly.
>
>First, the good news: The camp site manager had absolutely no problem with
>my putting up the antenna, and in fact helped with our initial installation.
>So, at least I know I'm good to go if I want to try something else out
>there.
>
>Since the guy was nice enough to help with the installation, I decided to go
>ahead with his initial suggestion of putting the center on top of his RV,
>which is about 50 feet from ours, and much higher than ours. The legs of
>the antenna then went across his roof on each side to adjacent trees. He
>did wrap one part of one leg around the railing of his RV ladder to keep
>things in place. The ladder line then came down from the center of the
>antenna on about a 45 degree angle to the PL259feed point connection on my
>RV. I'd say the center of the antenna was up about 30 feet, with the legs
>up about 15 to 20 feet on adjacent trees.
>
>Overall, my SWR's must not have been good, because the only band I could get
>the TS480 auto-tuner to tune it on was 10 meters. Everything else gave me
>the SWR no-tune reading.
>
>As for what might have gone wrong, I eliminated a number of possibilities:
>
>1. I checked my feed line on the RV, and all other jumper connections, for
>electrical integrity, and they were fine. I then physically checked the
>connections on the G5RV itself, and they looked fine. I had my XYL confirm
>this visually as well.
>
>As for what could have gone wrong, then, my theory is that perhaps the roof
>on the manager's RV was metal, or had metal in it, which served to de-tune
>the antenna. Wrapping one leg around the RV railing for a turn or two also
>might have thrown things off.
>
>Finally, I did one thing in the way of continuity checking that I want to be
>sure of with you G5RV experts out there. When you do a continuity check of
>the G5RV on the PL259 end, is it correct that you get electrical continuity
>across the coax connector? In other words, when I took my continuity
>checker, put one lead on the center conductor, and the other on the outer
>shield of the connector, I got continuity. I assume this indicates that I
>have an electrically complete antenna. Please correct me if I'm wrong on
>this.
>
>All in all, it was a rather disappointing situation, but if we can get out
>to the RV next week-end, we'll try something else, perhaps in nearby trees
>if we can figure out a way to get the center up at a reasonable height.
>
>73 from Tom Behler: KB8TYJ
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