MFJ G5RV Junior
G5RV Junior
Panic stricken I rushed off to my local purveyor, Sam Ford ZS6___ of Radio Accesories in Woodmead waving my credit card at anything that looks like it could receive radio waves. After calming my nerves, Sam pointed out that he has a MFJ-1778M in stock. What? I asked. So he says: Single dipole, multi-band, no traps. OK, he has my attention.
It turns out to be the best advice ever. The MFJ-1778M JUNIOR G5RV is supposed to tune up on 10-40MHz, can handle 1500 watts (OK, I only have 100 watt at the moment), and is just under 16 meters wide. Now thats impressive, and will fit my chimney mounting strategy. It took me a full hour to hoist this lovely piece of equipment onto my tower AND make a 15 meter RG58 cable, and before tea time on Saturday I keyed up the tuner.
Initially I was very disappointed, it tuned up on 40m and 10m but not on 20m. Reception was very good, although remember I am in a noisy environment. Then the following weekend and after discussing with Sam again, I decided to lower the antenna and create more of a “Cloud Warmer”. Initially I came down a meter, but after some more experiments I ended up with a nearly horizontal antenna no more than 3 meters above ground level. It may be a cloud warmer but it tunes up instantly on any band between 40m and 10m (including the WARCs) and so far it has become my all-time favourite antenna. It is the standard against which I judge all my other experiments.
