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ZS6BKW vs G5RV

hookedon6

W9WDX Amateur Radio Club Member
Jun 21, 2008
1,484
243
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i'm thinking about replacing my 102 ft G5RV with a ZS6BKW (optimizied) antenna.

it will be a a flat top configuration @ 40 feet and running directly east & west from SW Tn.

I am thinking I can get 5 HF bands without a tuner and the WARC bands too. I am not at all interested in working DX

anyone have any experiences with one of theses? Z<More audio>S6BKWZS6BKW
 

The antenna tuners built into modern HF rigs generally only work up to 3:1 SWR. So the G5RV type antennas are more difficult to tune then with an external tuner.

Check out the SWR graph at G5RV Antenna

Also in a many cases I think that long runs of coax have enough loss that it masks the problems. The SWR meter back at your radio may show a decent SWR but a lot of the watts you transmit aren't making it to the antenna.

By comparison the ZS6BKW well work well for 40, 20, 17, 12 & 10.
http://www.k2ck.us/g5rv.pdf

The consensus of articles I've see is that the 102' G5RV is at its best on 20 meters and a good tuner well match 80 and 12 meters but it is a terrible 10 meter antenna.

More information at http://www.w5ddl.org/files/Zs6bkw_vs_G5rv_20100221b.pdf
 

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