There's a website www.superbrightled.com that sells the blue LEDs. I found a plastic report cover that had a clear front and blue back that almost matches the original blue filter. I cut a piece and you can barely tell the difference. Only cost me couple of bucks at the school supply section in Walmart.

Paul WB0CJB

Here's a twist to the GOTA station. Say a FD site has 3 stations operating 3A. If one of them is treated as the GOTA for the new hams as well as unlicensed people (control op present), what if there isn't someone waiting to talk on the GOTA station. Can the station use the parent (club) callsign and continue making contacts as 3A? Then if a new ham comes up and wants to operate the GOTA station switch back to the GOTA callsign, all the time keeping the GOTA contacts separate. I would think that as long as the logs are kept separate then it would not make any difference. It would be a waste to let a station sit idle for most of FD if it was a GOTA station and nobody was there to keep it manned.

Paul WB0CJB

My TS-520S and Drake TR4C/ MS4/AC4 (and soon Heath HW100) may be considered "boat anchors" by most hams these days but at least I can work on them and can actually SEE the parts. Today's rigs end up as an expensive box of parts if the display and/or computer controlled display go out where my rigs are still usable thanks to their mechanical dial.

Paul WB0CJB

Unplug the #12 antenna fuse lamp and clean the pins on it. My TR4C had that same issue and after trying everything else I cleaned the pins on a whim and that fixed it. Good luck!!

Paul WB0CJB

As far as not getting the meter to work spray DeOxit into the slide switch that is mounted to the load control shaft. Then work it in and out many many times. Mine had the same issue until I sprayed the switch and finally it started working normally. Considering the rig was 37 years old and in pretty good condition it still gets good reports on the air. I'm sure it could use a good tube changeout and realignment.

What I DO need is a replacement AF/RF gain pot with on-off switch. Mine has become erratic and hard to turn the volume down to a low level.

Paul WB0CJB

How much power are you using? Is there any wind when the spikes occur? If the antenna sways and there is a loose clamp that might cause the spikes. Check your trap for continuity using an ohmmeter. I had a couple of traps go out on mine and I checked them for continuity and thats how I found the problem.Just hold the negative lead on one end and the positive lead on the other end, much like you check a resistor. Look at the traps caps and make sure they are not cracked. That will let the water in and cause arcing internally over time.

The crazy part is that I have a (used) 6BTV that had the 10 and 15 meter traps go bad on me too. Mine may have been due to the interstate move that I made from Indiana to Tennessee. Replacing them got the antenna back on the air and I have been very very happy with the Hustler line period. As far as tuning the traps with the tuning method from Hustler it does work and quite well. It doesn't take much to move resonance on 10 and 15 but its more pronounced on 20 and 40 meters. Once the traps are set just dope them up inside the cap with RTV (make sure it does not give off acetic acid fumes as it cures). It will say so on the label if it does. If you want to get really nit picky while you have it down shine up the joints using steel wool so they make good contact.

Feel free to contact me if you have any other questions about the antenna.

73,

Paul WB0CJB

I would use single 14 gauge wire lengths for the radials.As far as the length goes some say that they must be of a certain length. Others say it doesn't matter.A good length would be 33 feet.Try to put down around 30 but you will also hear to lay down as many as you can.Others will tell you you need 60-120 but you may not have an advantage with so many radials.

I have a 6BTV in which I have installed 20 radials (4 per band except 30M) and I have had excellent results with the antenna using the ground plate from DX Engineering.I may be adding more in the upcoming spring but I am not sure.I have even run the antenna with only 2 radials per band and had great results with it, attaching the radials to the antenna mounting bracket.The radials were laid out like spokes of a wheel.In both instances I laid the radials along the ground and "tacked" them down using the sod (or landscape) staples you can find at Lowe's or Home Depot.Once the grass grows over the wires they won't be seen and you shouldn't have any problem mowing over them unless you have the blade down really low.

I enjoy my 6BTV and I know you will work lots of DX even with the sunspot cycle so low.

Paul WB0CJB

Does the rig have a #12 lamp used as a antenna fuse? If so pull it and make sure the contacts are free from corrosion and gum/nicotine/dirt etc. Reseat it a few times and also make sure the TRCV/RCV switch is in the TRCV position (if it has one). I get bit by that one every so often as I recently brought my TR-4C out of mothballs and back on the air.I am so proud of using the TR-4C that my TS-520S has taken a back seat.

 De Oxit does wonders for all switches and controls. I even gave a spritz to the tube sockets where I had a tube making intermittent contact or was very noisy. I plugged the tube back in after a few minutes and the rig worked great. I thought a long time ago WD-40 would work but after reading of all the warnings not to use it and seeing what DeOxit does I am forever sold on DeOxit.

My next plan is to someday re align it (its 37 years old this fall) but as long as its working fine I will leave it alone. Good luck on the rig. As far as the blue dial filters don't clean them with 409 or you will wipe the blue off. My dad accidentally did once and I substituted a couple of pieces of blue plastic from a school report protector from Walmart and you can barely tell a difference from the RV-4C dial when I have the remote VFO powered up too. Some one in the Drake users group in yahoo.com mentioned using the blue superbright LEDs instead of the traditional #44 lamps.

The AC-4R power supply board is a great buy and works just fine if you put it in the AC-4.

Go to the yahoo.com/groups/Drake radios group as there is a big following of Drake owners/users (like myself-I have a TR-4C).

I have used a tuner with my 6BTV vertical and have had good results. I know many people will say that you cannot use a tuner with a vertical. I have used one with mine (an old SST T2 tuner) and it has worked fine on both 40 and 80 meters. I have gone from 6 to over 80 countries on 40 and from 2 to 25 countries on 80. I did have to make a sheet of what to set the tuner to depending on the frequency on both 40 & 80.

I will wholeheartedly agree that radials are a must. I have made quarter wave radials for 80 through 10 (2 each) and the SWR on 40 and 80 did not change at all when I tried lengthening and shortening them. The dimensions that Hustler gives for the radials puts resonance on 10 around 27 Mhz, 15 at 20.5 MHz, 20 at 14.26 Mhz, and 40 around 7.25 MHz. I checked the traps' physical settings against Hustler's info and none of them have been moved. I used the ground mount w/ radials dimensions when putting the antenna together so the only thing that would have an effect on the SWR appears to be the radial lengths. In the near future I will be overhauling the antenna and plan to do some playing around with different radial lengths and see how much resonance shifts on each band.

I used 14 ga. stranded insulated wire for the radials.

For a lot of good useful information about refurbishing the rig go to the Yahoo group TS520_820_530_830. There are a lot of Kenwood owners and users as well as several links. Another good website is K4EAA.com. They can give you plenty of advice as to working on the rig as well as getting the right paint for repainting the radio's case.

Paul WB0CJB

Be sure that you install the 2 coaxial chokes in the feedline as per Hustler's instructions. I had a 4BTV vertical which had really high SWR. I couldn't get the SWR to go down even with radials.I wrote Hustler and once I put the chokes in the feedline like they instructed the SWR dropped like a rock and the antenna really performed well.I agree with the others-you definitely need radials and they don't have to be large gauge wire.14 gauge stranded insulated wire or even smaller will work just fine and is very easy to work with. You might find that installing radials for 10, 15, and 20 meter is all you need even though there's 40 and 80 meter capability. I have a 6BTV that I put up and the SWR on 80/40 didn't change after initially installing 2 radials per band (except for 30 M which I don't use).I get around the very small 80M bandwidth by using a small tuner and it works just fine.Good luck and have fun working all the DX with the 5BTV. It defintiely is a great antenna!!!

Paul

I would recommend the Hustler 4 or 5 BTV vertical or the Hy Gain 14AVQ vertical with a few radials laid out on the ground. You can get some sod staples and tack the wires down so they don't get chewed up by a mower. I have used the 4BTV as well as the 14AVQ and they performs quite well. I would suggest that you might consider 3 guy ropes on either vertical to protect it against very high wind.No vertical can withstand a very high wind and using them would help. I have 2 sets of ropes on my 6BTV due to the 1 KW resonator and it has withstood many good blasts.

As far as the radials go nothing special about the wire type. Green color insulated copper 14 ga. wire from Lowe's or Home Depot (a 500 foot roll can make quite a few radials) would work fine and connect them to the vertical's mounting base as per the instructions.Use of the coaxial RF choke in the feedline is recommended as per Hustler's instructions.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about either vertical.I like the small footprint that either has and they aren't so big that the neighbors will scream anytime their TV blinked.

Its hard to say what would be best to move up to.I run a 6BTV with 2 radials per band except for 80 (1 radial) and 30 meters (0 radials-no radio on that frequency). As I bought the antenna used I haven't had a chance to pull the antenna down and do some fine  tuning on it so for now I run 40 and 80 with a small tuner. I know people have said not to run a tuner on a vertical but it works just fine with 100 watts and I have gotten into Europe and Africa on 80 CW and into New Zealand and Australia on 40. One thing I did before I settled on the 6BTV was to buy the book that compared a handful of verticals including the 6BTV. From what I have worked since putting up the antenna in the fall of 2005 I have certainly been happy with the 6BTV.It may be a sunspot minimum but my log certainly doesn't look like there is.

73,
Paul WB0CJB

I have used the 14AVQ antenna and it is a good antenna.As far as putting it on a 40' tower I really don't feel it would benefit you any.Even if it was mounted onto the tower you still need radials for the antenna and you might run into tuning problems.With a vertical you really need to use guy ropes as it could be easily snapped by the wind that high in the air.If you have the yard space and can mount the antenna on the ground I would highly advise it.All you need is a pipe driven into the ground as per the instructions. Then go to your local Lowe's or Home Depot or somewhere that sells stranded 14 gauge insulated (preferably green color)copper wire. Cut the wire into the needed lengths as per Hy-gain's instructions and put a ring terminal onto both ends to fasten the wire to the vertical's base. Alternately you can go to DX Engineering's website and get a radial plate and a tilt over plate for the Hy Gain series of verticals.

Once you have the radials cut and a terminal on the ends connect them to the verticals mounting base or to the radial plate and fan them out pretty evenly spaced if possible (use a sod staple at the very end to hold down the end of the radial. As you install each radial you can use sod staples (found in Wal-Mart's lawn section) or again through DX Engineering.You can also make your own using stiff solid wire.The purpose of the sod staples is to "tack" the radial to the ground low enough as not to interfere with a mower or kids. In time the grass will grow over the radials and you will never know they are there.Another way to put down the radials is to bury them about an inch or so into the ground by whatever means available.I have laid mine down and used the sod staples and the radials have never been harmed by a mower.

When I had the 14AVQ I had gotten it used from a local ham. I think one trap was not in good shape so I replaced it and polished up all the joints with steel wool. I set the antenna as per the instructions and installed it on a 5 foot Radio Shack steel mast driven into the ground and tacked on a radial for an air check. I worked a couple of Brazilian stations with it on SSB (this was in the mid 80's)from my QTH in Independence MO using a TS-520S. I ended up selling it to another ham and now use a 6BTV made by Hustler (also a used antenna).

Would I use another 14AVQ (or even an 18AVQ-WB)?Yes.The antenna is a good quality one and I like it because of the small "footprint".I do highly recommend putting one set (3 ropes) of small diameter guy ropes on the antenna. No vertical can withstand extremely high wind and with guys it stands a very good chance of surviving.I have 2 sets of guy ropes on the 6BTV due to the large resonator (1 KW rated) on the top of the vertical.But with the 14AVQ only one set is necessary.This fall I plan to put more radials down, retune the antenna, and install the tilt over plate and radial plate.

Sorry to be so long winded over the subject but hope that you can use this information.You don't need a KW and a beam or vertical on the tower to enjoy the DX (even at the bottom of the sunspot cycle).Good luck and you can email me at pckemp4@hotmail.com.

73,
Paul WB0CJB