Grundig G5 Newb ?'s

[RichJ]

Just got a new G5 and have a few questions.

I made a longwire antenna out of some 16 gauge wire (50') and a mini plug. I get great reception on the FM band but can't get anything at all on AM, the plug cuts AM off all together. I thought the longwire antenna set up was for improving AM reception not FM. So my question is how does this work and what should I expect? This is my first shortwave radio so I don't have a clue about this yet.

I get the usual AM stations that I can tune on my car radio and have picked up a few international stations using the scan feature. I relate this to show that the AM does work. I have read that the G5 has had some problems with blown internals and have read about the blown preamp check. I tried this at 1999 khz and tuned up to 2000 khz. I got noise on both frequencies. Isn't 1999 suposed to be quiet and 2000 noise? I had read that if you get 1999 noise, it means your AM is out. I can confirm that the AM band does work. Can anyone tell me some more about this?

Thanks.

 

[ka3jjz]

Check out what position the LOCAL/DX switch is in on the side of the radio.

As for the blown preamp check, you might want to check in on the G5 Yahoo group if no one answers - other users that have the same radio will often have these kinds of answers.

73 Mike

 

[NE1C4NSC4N]

I'm very much a newb in the HF world too.. but I have tried a couple of different antenna's now, including what I call a longwire, similar to what you describe, and the one thing I noticed using the "longwire", and now a dipole of some sort, you need to have a very good ground..I had mine grounded to earth, or how ever its said, with a ground spike I had kicking around and some extra wire. Do some reading in the Antenna forums, and check out the wiki at these links, you should be able to come up with some ideas/insight.

http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/HF_Antennas

http://www.monitoringtimes.com/html/ant-1.html

This next link is a sweet grounding system, that would be nice to have

http://wiki.radioreference.com/inde...ead_with_supressors_for_your_scanning_station

 

[RichJ]

If it needs a ground then why does it pick up FM 50% better but cuts out AM completely?

Position of DX/Local switch doesn't matter. Same response on both positions.

 

[AA1LL]

Looking at the G5 schematic on the yahoo group, when you plug into the antenna jack you disconnect the ferrite rod antenna plus FET preamp from the radio which is used on AM, freq less than 2MHz. This would explain some loss in received atmospheric noise. Also check the connections you are making to the antenna plug and how many rings it has. Unclear from the schematic how it should be wired. One way to attach an external wire is by magnetic coupling through a toroid which is also covered on yahoo but I have never tried. I have used just a clip lead connected to the whip with no problems of burn out-- but the radio seems pretty sensitive without a longwire antenna anyway so why bother. .....73 DE AA1LL MASON NH

 

[lexmedic157]

All I did for mine was to put an alligator clip on the end of the wire and clip it onto the base of the antenna. Seems to work fine for me. I too don't really know how it all works.

 

[NE1C4NSC4N]

If it needs a ground then why does it pick up FM 50% better but cuts out AM completely?

Position of DX/Local switch doesn't matter. Same response on both positions.

Like I had said before, I'm very much a noob with HF stuff, but in my trying/testing of the long wire I made, it was absolutly better once I added a good ground..

Mind you my radio is somewhat different then yours, but the same should apply, that "plug" should have a wire/spot to ground it.

 

[DPD1]

When using a long wire for HF, having a good ground can indeed increase performance. The ant. input on the G5 is primarily for HF. As mentioned, it turns off the built in preamp going to the whip when you use the ant. jack. So that is the perceived lowering of the signal on HF. In some cases... like if you're inside... You may not get any better on a long wire, compared to the whip... and that's due to the preamp. But an antenna outside would make a difference and usually be better than the whip. An antenna on the jack is not for AM or FM. It's turning the two built in antennas off when you use the jack, so that's why those are worse.

 

[AA1LL]

Yeah but now I have played with the G5 a little more and think you have to get the right kind of antenna plug to use an external antenna at LF and MF below 3MHz. I'm not sure it is just a simple mono-type phone jack. I think the radio switches from the internal ferrite loopstick to the whip at 3000kHz. Below 3000kHz the whip is not connected so if you want to use an external long wire antenna below 3000kHz you cannot just clip on to the whip; you need to use a plug. Note, this is just what I think, not verified by any shop manual or anything. I will get back to you guys if and when I get better info. ........................73, Paul, AA1LL

 

[rjag1946]

grundig g5

Live in Anch. Ak., bought 1 of these radios about a year ago. maybe it,s my location, but I can hardly pick up annything on the am meterband. I,m a newbe, so i don,t know 2 much bout short wave, but I did try hooking up a long wire in the yard. Even had it grounded 2 the post where the utilities come in2 the home. still picking up little 2 none. What am i doin wrong? Just whant 2 get the most out of this radio that it has 2 offer. I am using a mini plug 4 anteni instead of alligator clip. appreciate any info if u can give it! thank,s rg@gci.net grundig g5 Sanyo RP 8880 oldie but a goodie needs repair RS pro 97 love it ! uniden BCT8 uniden bearcatBC200xlt Cheers!

 

[AA1LL]

I find the G5 is more sensitive than my DX398 both with their installed whip antennas. I can copy even the weak ones on 40cw. You should be able to hear at least the local AM stations whose frequencies you can find on Google if you don't know them offhand. It could be you zapped the RF preamp FET when you attached the long wire antenna and power line ground. Check out the G5 Yahoo group, I think I saw posts on adding protection diodes or a post on blowing the preamp from somebody with similar problems. I once blew out the FET RF preamp on an old Radio Shack DX390 but it was easy to fix. (check my web page on QSL.NET/aa1ll ). Good luck and report back or email.

73, Paul, AA1LL
Mason, NH
aa1ll@hotmail.com

 

[ka3jjz]

Check the side of the radio to see what position the LOCAL/DX switch is in - try moving it to the other position...

In any case, being so far north, propagation is flaky at best. You're in a season with a long stretch of sunlight, I believe, so anything from about 10 mhz - 18 mhz or so is going to be where you want to tune. Anything below that will be pretty much dead - AM stations included. During twilight, you might start to get a bit more, but just wait - once darkness rolls around things from 9 or 10 mhz on down - including AM - should wake right up.

It should be clear by this point that how signals propagate on HF is quite different from what you run into in the scanner world. To that end, you might want to check out this website (and note - from here on out, anything in blue is a link)...you will need the Flash player to view this site, which will introduce you into the world of HF propagation...

Propagation Primer - Flash Movie by AE4RV

Now as to folks in your neck of the woods who also tune HF - I can think of no better place to start, even though it's based in Southern California, they just might have a few Alaska members...

ASWLC : American Shortwave Listeners' Club

If Stu MacKenzie WD6AA is still around, tell him Mike Agner says hi...

Now for some background reading...

DXing.com Web Resource for shortwave, scanner and ham radio hobbyists

read the stuff linked in 'Radio Basics' and 'Shortwave Radio' in the left frame


Welcome to the DXer.ca website

Colin is starting a series of articles on HF tailored for the beginner...

HF - The RadioReference Wiki

In the preamble, you will see several links. Just like any hobby, there's a dearth of terminology that can sound like Greek to anyone just starting off. Some of those links should start to make that a little easier.

That should be enough to keep you busy at least through the afternoon (hi) 73 (best regards) Mike

 

[AA1LL]

Correction: actually its not the yahoo G5 group its the yahoo ETON E5 group:
EtonE5 : Eton E5 (sorry)

73, Paul, AA1LL

 

[chrizby]

Hi Rich,
Sounds to me like the plug is not set up properly.
Take it apart. Make sure you have perfect separation between the two contacts.
Make sure that the rubber washer completely separates the antenna from the ground.


Having a good ground helps but I usually do not have it set up that way.

Even when you have the antenna set up properly, shortwave can be a lonely proposition sometimes. Its a pretty good radio though, and you can even monitor PSK with it,
just connect a sound cable from the radio to your sound card and run some PSK software and you can see a pretty good amount of activity.
Check for noise sources in your house: wall warts, florescents, etc.

Set up some Time stations to use as beacons.
2500 5000 10000 14672 15000 20000

Enjoy the radio.

 

[ka3jjz]

Keep in mind where rjag is - Anchorage Alaska. In his situation, 2.5 and 5 mhz won't propagate at all until maybe the twilight (he isn't going to have a real night for several months). In addition, it's likely 20 mhz is much too high to propagate reliably with these low sunspot numbers. 10, 14 and 15 mhz are much more likely to work.

73 Mike

 

[rjag1946]

grundig g5

Thank,s 4 all the info, I really appreciate it!!!! Looks like I,ve gotta lot of reading 2 do.
have a great day!

 

[tneff]

I had a similar issue, finally fixed it by adding a fiber washer/spacer on the input plug from the antenna. I guess the male plug I was using was a bit to long, might give it a shot and see.

 

[poikaa]

I had a similar issue, finally fixed it by adding a fiber washer/spacer on the input plug from the antenna. I guess the male plug I was using was a bit to long, might give it a shot and see.

Sounds just like the situation with my G6, I have to pull it out just a tad for the jack to work on HF otherwise it overloads.... Must and internal problem with the way the radio is wired up to the antenna circuit or a bad jack. BTW, by clipping a wire directly to the telescopic antenna could lead to a blown FET front end as it is subject to static spikes. I have replaced the FET on my E5.

poikaa