I quit my long wire setup in search of something better. I have a G5RV suspended about 35' in the air. The end of the ladder line is 150' run of cable from my shack. I can not get the AH4 to tune up at that distance. The only 4 strand wire I can find locally so far is 22awg phone line. At that distance I suspect that is the problem. Without the tuner the antenna gives me a SWR of 1.5:1 on 14.15mhz, which is what I expected as the G5RV was designed around the 20M band. If I could come up wth some 4 strand in the 18ga. range would that help? Or should I move the tuner closer to the shack and run a length of coax from the tuner to the antenna? Or I could just go back to the end fed wire from the new anchor points I have that are 200+ feet apart, I could screw the tuner to the eve of the house and only have about a 75' cable run which was working earlier. Any ideas out there?
The description of your system is unclear and confusing.
__________________
73, Cecil, OOTC, IEEE, http://www.w5dxp.com
"Government 'help' to business is just as disastrous as government persecution..." Ayn Rand
The description of your system is unclear and confusing.
At best.
You can use ladder line with a AH-4 by connecting one side to the normal lug for a end feed wire and the other side to the ground lug. You do NOT ground the tuner when hooking it up this way.
You will always get the best results by placing the tuner as close to the antenna as possible and only using as much feed line as necessary between the tuner and antenna. The length of coax between the radio and tuner isn't much of a concern as the radio, coax, and tuner input are all at 50 ohms so there will be very low loss even with a long run of coax.
I have no idea what you are talking about in regards to 4 strand wire.
Yes, you are using the wrong tuner. The AH-4 is designed to feed a single wire, pretty much random, against a radial field. It is NOT designed to feed into any sort of coaxial feedline, and can only sometimes be used to feed open wire.
IF you must feed a G5RV with it, connect it to the end of the ladder line, one wire to the output post, the other to the ground, then coax back to your shack. You will obviously have to run power to the coupler.
Or you could swap the AH-4 for a coax based tuner such as those by MFJ or LDG, Palstar and others.
The AH-4 isn't the wrong tuner for this. It can be used for more then just long wire antennas and it will work fine feeding ladder line as long as it isn't grounded. It is in fact a better choice then any “coax” tuner in that it can be placed close to the feed point of the antenna (it's weather proof) and can use a balanced feedline which will have lower losses at high SWR (and be shorter due to the tuner being closer to the antenna).
I have always thought of “coax” tuners as a bad joke. They don't tune the coax and if you have a high SWR to the antenna, the tuner wont change that and you will still suffer the losses on the coax. If you don't have high SWR, you wouldn't need the tuner in the first place.
You are defintiely a confused puppy. STOP and think about what you are doing here -- stop chasing your tail !
Quote:
I quit my long wire setup in search of something better. I have a G5RV suspended about 35' in the air. The end of the ladder line is 150' run of cable from my shack.
OK, when you DITCHED the Long Wire for a G5RV antenna, you used the Icom AH-4 for the Long Wire!
BTW, this is a LONG feedline run .. for ANY antenna. You can not get it closer?
Quote:
I can not get the Icom AH-4 to tune up at that distance. The only 4 strand wire I can find locally so far is 22awg phone line.
REPEAT. DO NOT use the AH-4 .... so forget about hunting for 4-conductor wire!
Feed your new G5RV antenna to your transceiver directly!
Quote:
Without the AH-4 tuner the antenna gives me a SWR of 1.5:1 on 14.15mhz, which is what I expected as the G5RV was designed around the 20M band.
CORRECT! You have a functional antenna -- start using it!
Quote:
If I could come up wth some 4 conductor cable in the 18 AWG, would that help?
NO, NO, NO.
The 4-conductor cable between an Icom transceiver (4-pin Molex connector on rear panel of an Icom transceiver) and the AH-4 is used for REMOTE CONTROL Only by your Icom transceiver.
YOU DITCHED the LONG WIRE .. which means you DITCH the AH-4, for now.
Start making some contacts and use your license. When you get a bit more experience, come back and we can talk about uses of the AH-4 with different antennas .. unless you are going to sell it for cash.
I had an Ah4 and I seem to remember a similar difficulty. I dont think you can run much more than 40 feet on the control cable. I couldnt get mine to work aboard ship with a run of 75 feet. I ended up with an SGC. I was coupling a 32 foot alumanum commercial marine grade whip. The SGC didnt mind the control cable run.
Ditch the G5RV and go back to the AH-4 and longwire... I work 160-6 with mine... every band. Trick is to use wire in both directions for counterpoise and not to ground like they show in the manual. Put as much wire as you can...
...DOUG
KD4MOJ
__________________
I'm a Prisoner (FH#1125), Locked up in Hellschreiber.
I had an Ah4 and I seem to remember a similar difficulty. I dont think you can run much more than 40 feet on the control cable. I couldnt get mine to work aboard ship with a run of 75 feet.
Lee that is strange... I have exactly 75 feet (and some inches) of control cable on my setup and it works like a champ. My cable is shielded... maybe that is the difference??
...DOUG
KD4MOJ
__________________
I'm a Prisoner (FH#1125), Locked up in Hellschreiber.
We appreciate your support.
Icom AH4 Tuner Troubles
Linear Mode
