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| Reviews Summary for Hustler 5BTV HF vertical |
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Reviews: 97
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Average rating: 4.6/5
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MSRP: $211.99
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Description: Hustler 5BTV HF vertical antenna for 10,15,20,40 and 80 meters.
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More info: http://www.new-tronics.com
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You can
write your own review of the Hustler 5BTV HF vertical.
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WD8DK
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 16, 2008 12:41
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Great
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Ok, after having this beast for 2 months and adding two wires for 17 and 12, this antenna is still the best I have owned as far as verticles are. I can work what I hear and I hear plenty.
Adding the two WARC band wires, I had to adjust the trap housings to compensate for the added bands. This antenna is ground mounted and WITHOUT radials. I am sure adding radials would improve the antenna, but why mess with something that is satisfactory to me.
For info, this is fed with 75' of RG8X and has a current balun made from the same length of coax.
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KI4RGD
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 13, 2008 11:44
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Great Vertical
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Purchased my 5BTV from DX-Engineering. They provided great technical assistance before and after the purchase (via email). Also purchased the radial plate, and the direct coax feed. I plan to purchase the 17m add on and the tilt-base later.
Assembly of the antenna itself took a few hours. All parts were accounted for. Additional instructions from DX engineering helped to clarify a few things I didn't understand from the manual.
I have not used an analyzer to fine tune the vertical - will do that later. My LDG AT-200 pro tuner handles the 5BTV with no problem. I placed 32 - thirty foot radials out. Earlier this spring, we had drought conditions in the south. The radials were easy to lay on the lawn with little grass. I used over 500 landscape staples to hold the wires down - it could still use a few more. It took a couple days to get all the wires down.
By the time the grass started to grow almost all of the wires were gone. I have to say, my lawnmower did find three of them and what a mess! Be sure to set your mower hieght - high the first few times you mow. I've also thought of using an old fashioned reel mower for the rest of the season - in this section of the yard.
As far as performance - it works great! I was using a homemade inverted V dipole (a cobra multiband dipole) before. That dipole works great! It takes up a lot of space though - with ladder line swaying in the breeze, etc. I decided to take my tower down along with the dipole and put up this vertical. This vertical sits in my side yard and is neat and clean. I have worked plenty of states and a few DX stations. I can hear tons of DX, but the bands could be open as well. I only run 100 watts but stations I talk too say I have a good signal. It's not a beam! I don't expect to hit France or Russia every time I get on the air. I made my first 10m and 15m QSO using this antenna.
All in all I am very plesaed with this antenna and would get another and recommend one to a friend. Good price ($149) and easy to put up. Get the radial plate and put down plenty of wires.
As for wire - I used 14g standed on 500 ft spools from Lowes, around $40 a roll. (I understand wire prices vary by location) I found ground staples at Walmart, 40 in a box for $3.80. You'll need alot of staples! Have fun with yor BTV and I hope to hear you on the air.
73,
KI4RGD
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KD4VCU
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Rating: 4/5
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Jun 15, 2008 10:57
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Good First Antenna
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I have a back and neck injury and love playing with antennas and such, but the trees had grown up around my 40' tower and I could not tilt it down anymore. So I gave the tower away to a friend and in doing so became interested in radio again. I decided to give the verticals a try.
This antenna is ground mounted and I could hear nothing originally, then I added tuned radials and was stil not satisfied. After adding 4 64ft radials and the antenna came alive, I now had over 500ft of radials and decided to make some contacts. First 'very weak" signal was a contact to Moscow on PSK-31 and the second was to Anchorage Alaska on 40watts from Alabama. I know, thats not a good indication as the bands were open some, but I am very pleased with this antenna.
I also opted for the radial plate, Pigtal and adapter as well as the title base, these items made installation a snap.
My installation has trees and a building close by so my SWR was very high. I have adjusted the traps but still can not get the resonance down to a nice number, however the SWR is fine and my TS-2000 can tune it in. Signal reports are all 599.
I may add another 500ft of radials (40 now probably 80) and see what happens. The interesting suprise is I can tune the antenna for 6M and other bands outside the original 5 bands. Having radials but at the 6M and other bands may have helped with that.
Now, the only problem is keeping all that wire down so I can mow the lawn:)
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KC9MLL
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Rating: 5/5
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May 30, 2008 07:13
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Great Antenna!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I have had this antenna for about a month now.
I have it hooked to a Kenwood TS-2000.
It tunes up rather nicely, and
if talking DX from Indiana to FRANCE! is any indication of it's possible abilities!! then WOW!
Every signal report I have recieved has been Great!
RADIALS RADIALS RADIALS! I can't say enuough! The more the better! The instructions say no less than two for each Freq. But you can add a whole lot more! The more radials, the better!
The only downfall I have seen so far, is the fact that you have to have a large area to put down all of the radials. Note: it will function without the radials, but it is so much better with them. Very noticeable difference!
All in all I am extremely happy with this antenna! and would recommend it to any Ham!
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WD8DK
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Rating: 5/5
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May 30, 2008 03:12
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Best for the money
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Bought my second 5BTV and am pleased with it.
I purchased the DX Engineering SO 239 for it.
As before, this is ground mounted, no radials and I can work what I hear with 50 watts.
As far as tuning for a perfect match, I just set the antenna to out of the box ground mounting specs. It was close enough that the rig tuner did the rest.
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KC9MSA
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Rating: 5/5
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May 3, 2008 14:29
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Great value!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I did a lot of shopping around, and at the recommendation of a friend, decided to buy the Hustler 5BTV for $149 at Dx engineering. I also bought the SO 239 add on for it, a nice addition. I don't know if I would bother with the base tilt-over or not.
But it was really easy to put up. It won't compete with my Imax 2000 on 10 meter, but the Imax is made specifically for 10 meter, some reviewers on here don't seem to understand that.
But, it is a great value, and I recommend it to anyone looking for a great HF verticle!
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KI0GU
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Rating: 4/5
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Apr 23, 2008 05:07
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Great Antenna - Install takes time
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Well, this is my first vertical HF antenna. I read all the review on Eham prior to purchasing this antenna. With my limited budget I figured this would be the best bang for my buck and boy was I right!
First things first - Having never set one of these up before a word of warning to those that ground mount this as I did. Borrow or buy a good antenna analyzer such as the MJF-259B (what I used). Without the antenna analyzer, this would have been boxed back up and brought back to the radio store! I started the install indoors and set it up EXACTLY as the manual suggested. I then put on the mast and installed 2 radials per band as suggested. I started the project on a Saturday evening at 8PM, ran out of light so picked back up on Sunday at 9:00 AM. I finished the install of this antenna Sunday 6:00 PM! I must have raised and lowered the antenna 100 times re-adjusting everything including the traps, which they said would most likely not be necessary. I would have given this antenna a 5, but because it took me so long to tune this, I could not justify it.
Operation - Well the work was well worth it! I check into a 40 meter net every morning and there have been times where my full wave loop has not heard net control, but the 5BTV pulled them out nicely!! This is exactly why I wanted this antenna.
After reading more reviews here, I plan on putting down more radials to improve the performance. Overall, I am very pleased with this antenna.
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AC0JX
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 3, 2008 08:09
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Great quick antenna
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I moved to a temporary QTH and didn't want to spend the time and effort to put up a tower, especially in the winter. I ordered the 5BTV from DX Engineering, along with the radial plate in early January. Since the ground was/is frozen, I could not drive a pipe into the ground so I made an 8x8 wooden frame to sit on the ground and act as a base and mounting platform for the radial plate. Built the frame, assembled the antenna, and put up the antenna with 20 radials, and guys in about 6 hours. I am on the top of a hill and we have had some 60 mph winds here (you can see the picture window glass flex with gusts!) and the antenna has been rock solid. I run a ICOM 756 ProIII with no amplifier and the antenna tunes well on all bands with the internal tuner. I cut the 80 meter top per instructions and it tunes quite a bit lower in the the band than I anticipated or planned, but I will adjust when the weather improves. I have gotten 59's from the coasts on 40M, Guatemala and Hawaii on 20M, with 100 watts (probably less from the 756) so it performs when the band conditions permit. In my opinion this is a great first antenna for HF, or a great antenna for QTH's with space or HOA limitations. For less than $300, a moderate amount of time, no climbing if ground mounted, one would be pressed to do better.
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KE7GWY
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Rating: 5/5
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Feb 8, 2008 13:07
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Excellent
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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(New call sign is W1RMS) I studied a lot of the literature on vertical antennas. I selected this one because of previous reviews. Followed instructions and erected it 25 feet on my roof with two radial per band. SWR under 1.5:1 on all bands except 80 meters (using an antenna tuner to cover the whole band on 80) using recommended tuning instruction. The laws of physics are obeyed by this antenna. That’s a good thing. I did not expect the entire 80 meter band coverage with a loading coil.
Performance is excellent! Compared to my 120' long wire and folded dipole antennas this antenna is much better. On 20 meters I end up hearing and working signals not even audible on the other antennas. If I can hear signals I can work them with 50-100 watts SSB with Icom 756Pro.
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G0KYA
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Rating: 5/5
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Feb 5, 2008 08:57
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Great Antenna - better on HF than LF
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Put one up to test for a couple of months. In a nutshell, not too good around the UK on 80m due to the low angle radiation and poor bandwidth.
Good on 40m - about equal to a lowish dipole for contacts into Europe. About 1 S point up on DX.
Equal to or slightly down on general contacts around Europe on 20m. About 1S point better across the Atlantic, ZL and ZS compared with dipole. Can't comment on 15-10m due to lack of sunspots. It was also quite quiet which was a bonus. Put down lots of radials and you won't be disappointed, at least for DX. Steve G0KYA
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