My back yard is small so I have difficulty installing even the G5RV as a flat top so I decided to give a sloping-v a try so I could get on 80 meters with better results. The antenna was installed about a month ago.
I have been reading on N.V.I.S. and plan to make a N.V.I.S. antenna over the winter. This is some of my reasoning on using the G5RV in different configurations including N.V.I.S.
My sloping-v is not the traditional as the ends are about 7-1/2 feet off the ground. The apex is about 25 feet from the ground.
So far I have worked most of the South Eastern states with this antenna on 80. Not DX by a long shot, but much better than I have been able to work on any other antenna.
Plans are to try this at more of a slope to bring the ends closer to the ground as a true sloper would require and to try it with terminating resistors. The G5RV is not resonant on any single ham band especially using this configuration. I do not have the ends terminated nor am I using a counter poise. I have radials on the vertical and they provide the ground plane for the sloper.
Checking the antenna with my handy-dandy but how accurate MFJ antenna analyzer the antenna has a 1.2:1 VSWR @ 50 ohms @13.848 MHz and 1.5:1 @ 50 ohms @14.000MHz. The analyzer shows a 1:1 VSWR @ 50 ohms @35.565MHz and again at 75.6935 MHz. I do not fully trust the MFJ analyzers, but they get close. I question their accuracy because they will indicate 1:1 at anywhere from 35 to about 60 or 70 ohms. I have used several and find the same results. I plan to check this antenna with a GR bridge when the weather gets cool enough.
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| This is the G5RV. A bit difficult to see the V. |
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| Feed point is the white in the lower right corner. |
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| End supported by 2 LCSS aluminum poles |
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| Each end pole is held by a section of PVC pipe attached to angle iron driven into the ground. |
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| This is the apex about 25 feet high. Guy plate is between the 5th and 6th section of a mast made from MS-44 aluminum sections from an AB-155/A/U |
