I went on a mission today to get my HF antenna working with my Uncle’s help!

We started out testing a ‘mini g5vr junior’ off ebay, it was about $50, and… not great.

Its only about 15m at its widest (both elements!)

We couldn’t even get it to tune on any band.

So back to the drawing board, or more the cutting board, we butchered the mini antenna and used its copper wire to repair the G5RV I already had!

With the two elements from the mini one soldered on, I was still about 40cm short of the correct length, so I cut 45cm of solid core ethernet, stripped the ends and twisted them together, and then soldered that in the mix!

with the two elements the correct lengths (or close enough)

we popped down the road to the park and strung the antenna between two trees about 50m apart from each other, using some rope to reach the trees.

The antenna was only 2-3 meters off the ground, so not ideal, but it was great hearing voices coming through the radio again!

It tunes on some bands, but not others.

I think im done messing around, and ill just buy a new G5RV and not let my parents near it (theyre the reason the one I have now is broken, they didnt even keep the half they snapped off :((((( so much copper just thrown away…)

The park is a good candidate, seems low noise there (compared to elsewhere, I still miss my perk in the mountains though!)

There is two trees with nice high branches I am eyeing off, about 10-15 meters off the ground, and ~70m apart.

If I can string it up between there, and set up camp in the middle of the two, with a little picnic table and some food, I think I could have a fun few hours!

Here is some pictures of the final setup, and a youtube video showing some sweet morse and voice coming through

73