I’m a member of the Bergen Amateur Radio Association (BARA) and they have a weekly “kit night” where a good 15-25 people show up to hang out and often work on radio related projects. So I brought my G5RV that 2 weeks ago started acting up (see the last 2 blog posts) to firther check out and get some suggestions on.

We tested things out and it looked like there might be an issue in the area where the coax connects to the ladder line. The way the G5RV was built, there’s a sharp bend in the coax as it goes loops back through the ladder line. Folks that was probably too sharp a bend of for some reason there was too much tension on it as it blew in the wind. As we were testing continuity, between the shield and one of the ends of the antenna, they manipulated that area where the connection is and we lost the connection momentarily. So we pulled it apart trimmed a bit off of the ladderline and the coax and put it back together by soldering the connections between the coax and ladderline, using heat shrink tubing on each leg of the new connection, wrapping it further in tape, shrink tubing the pair of wires, and then with some popsicle like sticks in that area, taping it further.

The folks also suggested using some nylon rope around that by looping through some of the ladder line and going below the connection on the coax to further eleviate stress on that part. It all tested out and I brought it home. Not sure when the weather will permit me to put it back up, but I’ll get it up as soon as I can. I still have the antenna analyzer to test things out when it goes up and see how it looks.

So thanks to Kerry who sold me the antenna for all his support and to my fellow BARA members for jumping in with suggestions and support with getting it [hopefully] repaired!

K2DSL