The W5GI Multiband 80-6m Mystery Antenna
A multiband wire antenna that performs exceptionally well even though it confounds antenna modeling software… The design of the Mystery antenna was inspired by an article written by James E. Taylor, W2OZH, in which he described a low profile collinear coaxial array. This antenna covers 80 to 6 meters with low feed point impedance and will work with most radios, with or without an antenna tuner. It is approximately 100 feet long, can handle the legal limit. It’s similar to a G5RV but a much better performer especially on 20 meters. The W5GI Mystery antenna, erected at various heights and configurations, is currently being used by thousands of amateurs throughout the world. Feedback from users indicates that the antenna has met or exceeded all performance criteria. The “mystery” part of the antenna comes from the fact that it is difficult, if not impossible, to model and explain why the antenna works as well as it does. The antenna is especially well suited to hams who are unable to erect towers and rotating arrays. All that’s needed is two vertical supports (trees work well) about 100 feet apart to permit installation of wire antennas at about 25 feet above ground. The W5GI Multiband Mystery Antenna is a fundamentally a collinear antenna comprising three half waves in-phase on 20 meters with a half-wave 20 meter line transformer. It may sound and looks like a G5RV but it is a substantially different antenna on 20 meters. Louis Varney’s antenna, although three half waves long, was an out-of-phase aerial. Mr. Varney had two specific reasons for selecting a 3 half waves on 20… he wanted a four-lobe radiation pattern, at least unity gain and a low feed point impedance. The Mystery Antenna, on the other hand, presents a six-lobe pattern on 20 meters, gain broadside to the antenna, and also low feed point impedance to simplify matching the antenna to the rig. Additionally, the Mystery antenna is designed to work at least as well, on the other HF bands as a G5RV. In short, the Mystery antenna is a sky wire that incorporates the advantages of a 3 element collinear and the G5RV antenna. In its standard configuration, a collinear antenna uses phase reversing stubs added at the ends of a center fed dipole. These stubs put the instantaneous RF current in the end elements in phase with that in the center element. In addition I am happy to announce we now offer the 75 ohm line isolator/quarter wave matching section of coax which W5GI recommends to flatten out the swr on 20 meters. This is a handy accessory if you plan on doing a lot of 20 meter work with the antenna. It enables the user to load the antenna without an antenna tuner. The swr is usually very close to 1:1 over a large portion of the 20m band. It connect between the 300 ohm line and the coax that goes to transmitter and has no effect on any other band. Now the 20 meter line isolator comes WITH a female to female uhf Barrel Connector which makes the connection to your coax much easier.
!!!!! This is the ONLY fully assembled “W5GI Mystery Antenna” endorsed By W5GI John Basilotto & It is the ONLY “W5GI Mystery Antenna” that is registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office Serial Number 77-692,288, Reg. No. 3,805,448 and Filed 3/16/2009. So Beware of the cheap unendorsed imitations. If it doesn’t say K4TR Antenna Mfg & Sales, IT’S NOT THE REAL DEAL. !!!!!
