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You can
write your own review of the Hy-Gain Hy-Tower 18HT.
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W7TJ
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Rating: 5/5
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Feb 10, 2005 19:45
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Outstanding !
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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The HY-Gain 18HT Vertical is a very Durable and Versatile
Antenna system that will Cover 160 thru 10M including the Warc bands with
excellent bandwidths, and take full legal
power levels without fried traps and arced coils along with general KW
Paranoia.
The Mechanics of the 18HT were covered very well in a previous review, one
person being able to assemble/raise/lower the antenna on it's hinged base.
Unless you live in a very high wind loading area, you do not have to worry
about "Customizations" by the WX.
The 18HT is completely self-supporting, so no need to clutter your QTH with
Phillystran, rope guys, or other rigging.
I have experimented with zero (0) to 120 radials, and found saturation
occurs around 30-40 radials over normal ground, anything past this level is
not really cost/time/performance effective. (Technical aspects aside, this
is what works)
Here is a band by band summary of what to expect in performance and how to
maximize/choose options/mods etc:
10 Meters: The 10M stub allows coverage of the entire 10
meter band, however adjustments will have to
be made per individual QTHs operating
conditions,soil/ground/radials etc.
12 Meters: Resonant across the entire Band
15 Meters: Same comments as 10M operation
17 Meters: 3 Choices here:
1. Add the 17 Meter Stub and cover the Band
2. Use Rig Antenna Tuner
3. Reasonable Resonance is achieved when
using the MK-160 add on kit for 160M
20 Meters: Resonant over the entire band
30 Meters: The Resonant frequency is not far from 10.1
Most Rig antenna tuners will accomodate
and do fine with the lower power limits OR
Modifications can be made per the article:
"Adapting the HY-Tower for use on 30M" QST
July 1986 page 45. ( Contact Hy-Gain & they
will send you a copy )
40 Meters: Covers the entire band
80 Meters: Performance on this band is the Best..
Complete coverage is realized by the coil
at the base of the antenna either your own,
or purchase Hy-Gain's LC160 coil. ( 3" diam
approx 12" long 3 turns per inch) Tapping it
at various points allows coverage especially
the CW portion of 80M (Bandwidth around each
Tap point is approx 100KC) Be sure to have
enough and the right coil taps (either from
Hy-Gain, or can buy from Surplus Sales)
Alligator Clips will NOT do !
160 Meters: This is where things become interesting...
The Hy-Tower basically operates as an 1/8
wave radiator on this band using the LC-
160 coil,Efficiency seems good, but bandwith
is very limited..basically 20KC per coil tap.
AND, since the currents/voltages are very
high running in this manner, power handling
is very limited ( 200W ) unless you made the
following Modifications:
The top 2 insulators must be replaced with
Teflon. Teflon Rod need to be purchased.
and machined to match in size,length,etc
of the original insulators and spaced in the
center of the top plate brackets such that
equal air space exists around the
circumference of the insulators &
and edges of the top brackets. Additionally,
the mounting brackts for the anchoring
U bolts for the top mast need to be
re-mounted on teflon 1/2" or so blocks
(recessing the mounting bolts) and
finally, a 2" piece of Teflon needs
to insulate the bottom of the LC-160
coil from the base of the HY-Tower.
Alot of work & plan on spending approx.
$ 125 or so. Even with still the narrow
Bandwiths, Performance is outstanding.
160 Meters: Option #2 is to purchase the MK-160
add on kit form Hy-Gain. Cost is
approx. $130.00 This will allow the
Hy-Tower to run as a 1/4 wave inverted
L. The connecting trap is attached
at the top of the tower and approx
105 feet of wire is run to a support.
Use of a #12 gauge insulated wire
will shorten the length 5% or so
due to the dialectric effects of
the insulation, plus the ease of working
with this wire over the hard drawn type
supplied. The MK-160 kit not only solves
the power handling limitations ( 1.5KW
with ease) but will allow bandwidths of
90-100KC in addition to a 1-2 db improve-
ment in recieve efficiency. The Trade-off
is some of the Vertical Component is
Sacrificed + ground losses etc.
Ideally, everyone would like big gain antennas on all
Bands, However if space is limited and you wish to cover
all 9 bands and not worry about power handling, this is
the Vertical to have - Simple, Effective,& Low Maintenance
The Antenna, Shipping, Installation, and whatever Mods or
Add on items you choose, plan on spending slightly on the
North side of $1,000. - But you will only spent it once...
I have used for 20+ years as many others have.
Randy W7TJ
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WB6Q
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Rating: 5/5
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Dec 12, 2004 08:52
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Great Antenna for 40 and 80 meters
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Owned one in California for a number of years with 60 radials and if was wonderful on 40 and 80 meters. Did not try to use it on 160 meters. Don't know how the quality is since the reintroduction of this antenna. The fact that MFJ owns Hygain is somewhat of a concern to me. I am about to find out because I am going to purchase a new one in the next few weeks. There has been a price increase to $849 plus truck shipping!!! If the quality is as good as the old ones I will put out 60 radials and begin developing an 80 meter 4 square.
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W4JFR
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Rating: 5/5
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Sep 18, 2004 18:48
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UPDATE
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Well, now seems a good time for an update to my previous review. Hurricane Ivan passed by our area last week and the hy-tower came through with flying colors. We had sustained winds of 45 MPH and gusts to 71 mph according to the NWS here. The only problem was the topmost length of mast worked the screw loose on the clamp and slipped about 18 inches into the mast section below. I simply folded the antenna over and fixed it. Now its fine.
I watched the antenna during the height of the storm. While pine and oak trees were taking a beating and moving violently in all directions, the hy-tower was rock solid.
The shortened stub solution identified by N9NY (see his review below) helped me to fix the problem on 15M and now it is less than 2:1 swr across the entire band.
The antenna has been up for two years now (this month) and I remain a very satisfied customer. This is a durable and excellent functioning antenna.
Jim, W4JFR
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N9NY
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 22, 2004 18:58
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Correcting SWR on 15
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have the Hy-tower for just over a year and have had diffculty getting the swr down below 3:1 on 15 meters. The swr was high across the entire band.
I used the MFJ analyzer which pointed to the 15 meter stub needing to be shortened. The fine tuning stub was shortened from 21 inches to 14 1/2 inches. The swr is 1.5:1 across the band. I also tuned the 10 meter stub to 8 inches which brought the swr down significantly in the cw portion. Longer isn't always better!
73
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WZ7I
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Rating: 5/5
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Nov 9, 2003 21:15
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New MFJ version seems quite good
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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This year I installed a 4 square array for 80 meters using the new MFJ / HyGain Hy-Tower. I am quite satisfied.
Several conditions led me to the decision to use the Hy-Tower. The array is in a wooded area so guy wires or elevated radials would be very difficult to maintain because of falling branches. (Besides, decades ago the Lady Who Must Be Obeyed mandated no guy wires!) I wanted antennas that would be very robust and would require little maintenance over their lifetime. While I had reservations about trying to install full sized self supporting elements, I wasn’t willing to live with the compromised performance of 25 or 30 foot elements.
The Hy-Tower meets these criteria. At 53 feet, the linear loaded antenna does not represent a large compromise. I dropped the resonance point of mine from 75 meters to the 80 meter band by winding small coils on W4FXQ “Universal” dipole insulators that have grooves molded into them so they can also be used as a coil form for 14 gauge wire. This inexpensive solution is probably almost as good as the Hy-Gain coil. I am thinking about winding better coils with ¼ inch copper tubing but I have yet to figure out how to wind 4 identical coils that will withstand 20 years in the woods without shifting their impedance.
I do not know how this antenna was built before the MFJ acquisition but I am satisfied with the current product. The antenna uses a great deal of stainless steel. The “tilt-over” brackets are a little crude but entirely serviceable. Looking at the antenna the aluminum tubing “stinger” coming out of the top of the tower looks heavy enough to take the wind. I assume that the weakest link may be the tower base insulators but that is not the result of any engineering analysis. I feel I got my money’s worth. Note that I have not assembled any of the stubs for other bands.
I do not understand why the manual perpetuates the myth that this antenna will work acceptably with only ground rods rather than radials. This array has 60 radials per element with the all the joints where the radials cross each other brazed with copper / phosphorus rod. I wish Hy-Gain would engineer a nice feed line connection and a way to neatly connect scores of radials. I modified the Comtek feed line connectors to work with the Hy-Tower.
The installation of the antenna bases was more than I could handle by myself so a contractor installed the bases and ran conduit for the feed lines and the control cable. The array is 500 feet from the house and is fed with LMR-600 cable.
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K1ZYW
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Rating: 5/5
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Sep 22, 2002 00:38
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THE BEST!!!
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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This is a follow up to my initial review. I now have 16 radials and have added the 17m stub.
It works great. I do a lot of DXing on cw and ssb. I never would have thought it would be so good.
Lots of work to put up, but worth it. I will be adding the 160m (the better wire not coil version) and will update my review. It is nice to have a reliable antenna that I can just go to the frequency and not worry about swr, etc. I run power thru it and it just works
ken k1zyw
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W7TJ
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Rating: 5/5
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Sep 18, 2002 12:35
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Excellent !
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have used a HY-Tower for 12 years primarily for the low bands.I had loops,yagis, and a large inverted v for 160M, however I wanted a low angle radiator ( vertical polarized ) that most importantly would handle a KW +. The HY-Tower nicely fills the bill in addition to good performance on the WARC bands ( Especially 30M ) using a tuner, plus The Hy-Tower is resonant on 12M.
No guying is requied, so raising/lowering the antenna is easy.
160M operation does require som modification if you want to run a KW. ( See tower talk forum )
1st, the top insulators need to be replaced in kind with Teflon. I had 2 1/2" O.D. Teflon Rod machined to 2" I.D. Second, I placed the angled aluminum brackets for the top U bolts on Teflon blocks, thereby adding additional protection for the top Teflon Insulators. The only caution is to not make large frequency changes (+20 kc ) using KW as the bandwith using the coil on 160M is small.
I am glad the HY-Tower is back in production.There is no substitute for a gain antenna on ANY Band, but if space is limited & you want to run power, this is the Antenna.
- Randy W7TJ
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W5EJ
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Rating: 5/5
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Aug 18, 2002 07:42
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The only vertical to own
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have owned one HT for more than 10 years and a second for two years.
Over my 50+ years as a ham, I have used vertical antennas from just about every manufacturer - Butternut, Hy-Gain, Hustler, etc. Let's face it... on 10-15-20m, none will match a beam. However, I can also say no other vertical will match the Hy-Tower. Especially on 80 and 40m, no other vertical even comes close!!
It's pricey, but if you can afford it, this is THE vertical to own. But be prepared to invest time and back-breaking effort on a good radial system... at least 18-20 wires. 40-45 is a good compromise and 120 is best, though not required for ham use.
My HT has survived two 110 mph winds with no failure or damage.
I recently acquired a second HT and plan to phase them. Due to an expected move, I have not done that yet.
The HT is slim, unobtrusive, requires no guy wires and --in most cases-- very neighbor-friendly. Several of my neighbors who have lived around me (for the three years my HTs have been up at this location) didn't even realize they were there. This is in a normal residential setting (normal size lots)
Performance-wise, I have worked all over the world with the HT... both at the legal limit and on SSB and CW QRP at 5 watts. It would be nice to have a beam once again. I enjoy DX but I'm not a serious DX chaser. I could happily live out my days with nothing but the HTs.
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W6DZ
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Rating: 5/5
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Aug 16, 2002 02:52
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Excellent antenna
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I used a Hy-Tower for DXing during the mid 70s while living in the Chicago area. It saw use on all non-WARC bands and 11 meters (CB). In 50 years of ham and military radio I've worked with numerous vertical antennas, but the Hy-Tower is my favorite. It is no match for a good beam, but it is (was?) a rugged antenna with a small footprint that will perform for years without maintenance. Performance on 40 and 80 was superb with very low VSWR over most of 75/80 meters. I ran a KW in those days and the Hy-Tower never complained. The only rub I can recall was the need for a loading coil on 160 (and a relay to switch it in and out). If you want to spend your hobby time on the air instead of roosting on towers, this is the way to go.
Al W6DZ
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N6ME
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 22, 2002 23:57
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THE BEST !!!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I owned one for about three years and sold it when I moved. It just flat out worked.
I have owned the 14AVQ, the Hustler and a Butternut and they are just not in the same league.
If you HAVE to have a vertical this is the only
one the REALLY works on 80 and 160.
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