Tom,

It sounds like you have two problems: The leg of the antenna wrapped around 
the rail of the RV, and what sounds like a DC short on the coax.  I'm less 
concerned about the short since the antenna does work on 10 meters, although 
that may just mean you're doing a fine job of feeding signal to your coax. 
While I'm sure you can take some liberties with the ladder line, and maybe 
even with bending the legs of the antenna, I'd bet that the close proximity 
of the antenna to the manager's RV is causing trouble.  As others have said, 
don't give up yet, but I think you have to work to do.  Good luck, and keep 
us posted.

Steve

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Behler" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, August 19, 2012 11:48
Subject: G5RV Disappointment


> 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
>