Best vertical HF antenna

[e350]

The guy sold me the rig advice me to get this one MFJ-993B but as you said is a lucky bag ...

[JGR]

I have no personal experiences with that particular model but from the specifications it sounds rather good and I assume you are looking for an auto ATU?

The LDZ range are quite practical and work well for there price.
After all is said and done it does not matter a jot which one you choose as they all do the same basic process of matching the impedance of the antenna to the radio.
Mind you some do it more efficiently and quietly that others, some sound like a cargo train passing you by.

[northern35s]

afternoon, well I have installed the g53v-hs and can't get to work my FT-950 won't tune it. The SWR is to high for the int atu to tune. What a waist of time and money. Now got an external ATU . I've been told to stay away from MFJ's ,
so don't have an idea which one.
I have come across this vertical antenna looks interesting but pricey Titan-DX 8 band HF .

not happy at all...

Simon told you back on page 1 the best HF antenna for compromised gardens, the Cobweb, build your own, buy new, or buy second hand, there simply isn't anything on the market that will perform as well, in such a small space, with as little fuss, 10/12/15/17/20m band covered in one antenna, add a dipole for 40m and you have the bulk of HF covered, for 80m you'll need space and for top band most people have to compromise.

If you want to be a little more adventurous then an inverted L at the bottom of your garden, supported on a 10m fishing pole and then attached with an insulator up by the chimney, one long radial as a minimum and a remote antenna tuner at the base, bingo.

For info, if your internal tuner doesn't find a match with your antenna it isn't going to kill it off, it just stops trying to find a match

[e350]

I 'm going to try raising the g5 and try a slope from the roof down so that will be 15m one end and 4m down as my wife won't like the pole in the garden .
At the moment I'm using a MP1 super stick and just made a contact with a chap in Germany I'm so pleased with that antenna

[northern35s]

The pole would be at the very end of your garden for an inverted L and the radial buried, they don't come much less inconspicuous, much less visible than the monster that is the Gap Titan R8

If you don't mind me saying, you've put some effort into the rig you wanted to buy, splashed the cash and not given too much thought to how you'll radiate your signal, you're most definitely not the first and I know that you won't be the last, your shiny Japanese rig is useless without a good antenna, and good doesn't have to cost the Earth or be a huge eyesore

[e350]

just told my wife that I'm going to install a fishing rod at the bottom the garden for the inverted dipole ...if only you could see the face ... NO !

[northern35s]

just told my wife that I'm going to install a fishing rod at the bottom the garden for the inverted dipole ...if only you could see the face ... NO !

It wasn't a dipole I suggested, but the response is a chuckle

[GW0DIV]

The 993b is a nice bit of kit, it can tune/match most antennas and has most of the most used features of the 259 analyser built in. It can also be driven or tweaked manually.

[mangina]

Have a read here

http://www.karinya.net/g3txq/g5rv/

look at the first swr chart , even the best readings are getting close to outside an internal tuner

it will give you a bit of insite into the G5 , i wouldn't worry that an internal tuner on the radio won't tune it , internal tuners are more for just tweeking than actually taming a large missmatch and i wouldn't expect to tune a G5 without an external tuner anyway so i wouldn't worry , the rig is fine and the antenna probably is too ..

Most MFJ's are fine , as stated sometimes the quality control isn't great but i have had a few and all have been ok , maybe a loose screw here or a dry joint but nothing to write home about ..

[e350]

morning all, plan for today is: get a small 2 m max ( will seek approve afterward by the wife ) pole so to raise the g5 at the bottom of the garden .
Q . my g5 half size has a 450 homs ladder and currently to long and coiled a bit on the ground and at the end it has a kind of sealed 50homs balun which I got about 15m of RG213 into the house , can I trim the ladder so is raised from the floor ?

Thank you

ps. last night managed to contact with my MP1:
Ireland, Germany, Swiss , Italy , Spain

[mangina]

you shouldn't really cut it . It would be better to get it off the ground.. Run it back towards the shack held off the ground about a foot with some short sticks or something . How high is the center ? as a half size G5 should only have about 16 or so foot of feeder.. The so239 block won't be a balun it 's just a means of connecting the ladderline to the coax ( or they normally are) .. you need to get the feeder off the ground though .

[northern35s]

Same as Mangina says, get the feeder off the ground and most certainly don't coil it up. If you've bought an MFJ993B then forget the coax and just connect the feeder to the twin lead lugs on the back of the tuner, as a temporary measure pass the twin lead through an open window in your shack and see how you go, if it works well then consider a more permanent route for your feeder.

[mangina]

There really shouldn't be any issue with the G5 , get it as high as , keep the feeder free from obstruction , coax from the junction of the feeder if the feeder doesn't reach all the way to the atu and away you go ..

[e350]

hello , I'm back from a long drive to Saint Davies ...didn't manage to do anything, I haven't ordered the ext tuner so , one enf of the g5 is 3m off the ground the other end is 2.4m off the ground, the center the ladder is long , so I have lifted off the ground about 1m and coiled , so will un coil and rund the ladder off the floor into the garden edge so at least is off the ground , it won't reach my rig in the house so I got to use the coax the rg213 , I must say a big thank you all your help you are giving me ..

[e350]

well , I have lifted the ladder off the ground about 1m and wow ! it works my FT-950 managed to tune it only on 40m I'm using right now ...