From a newbie standpoint, this was my first antenna. 1/2 wave 20m dipole due to space restrictions. It was sort of sloping, with ladder line to a balun, then coax. It looked horrible, like a sad, wilting Charlie brown Christmas Tree.

I was stunned at the performance by something that cost only a few bucks.

Bill is right, keep it simple and just
Get on the air.

Would an older transceiver like the HW-101 properly tune a G5RV without an antenna tuner? I am going to put one up, as soon as the weather improves.

Wikipedia.

http://www.w0btu.com/g5rv_antenna.html

Curtis Eickerman

+1 Martin! A Center Fed Zepp with 450 ohm feedline and a nice transmatch will give you multi-band capability with one antenna.

There are two drawbacks though (which I think are minor)

First, the lobes can get a bit weird the further you get from your lowest frequency. My CFZ is cut for 40M. It works well on 40, 30, 20, and 17M. Not so well on 12M. A friend of mine who has had a pair of CFZs at his QTH for years has observed this also. I've found my coax fed 160M INV-L used with an UNUN hears better on 12M than my CFZ.

Second, if you elect to buy a modern no-tune radio, then by using an external transmatch you will loose the push button tuning capability -- you can't use the on-board auto-tuner with an external transmatch.

I use a Heathkit SA-2060 tuner with my CFZ. They are not cheap, but they are good.

Go to the W0BTU web site that Curtis referenced. Note the last paragraph:

"A much better alternative to any of these three antenna designs is running the open-wire line from the center of a dipole all the way to a balanced antenna tuner, which was recommended by Louis Varney, G5RV himself. That antenna will work on ANY band from 80 through 10 meters. (And that's what I eventually did with this improved antenna design here at my QTH.)"

Also see the ZS6BKW variant of the G5RV. I've had good success with one at my vacation cabin.

http://www.w5dxp.com/ZS6BKW80/ZS6BKW80.HTM

I have the WA2NAN True Talk antenna, which comes with its own coax feedline. If I do need to use a tuner, it is no problem, as I have a couple of nice ones.

+1

Multi-band antennas are best fed with balanced line. Coax is lossy with high SWR, balanced feed line is not. I have fooled with a number of antennas and find that my horizontal loop fed with 450 ohm ladder line tunes up sweet and outperforms all the others I have tried.

In the beginning I was (like most new hams) obsessed with being able to work all bands. Since then I have discovered that I mostly work three bands, 80, 40 and 20 meters. With the solar cycle where it is (and will be for a while) openings on the higher bands are rare anyway.