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Show all reviews of the Hustler 6BTV Vertical
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of the Hustler 6BTV Vertical.
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SP5DDJ
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Rating: 5/5
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Nov 8, 2007 06:06
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VGC - Very Good Choice !
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Dear Colleagues,
Just read all 91 opinions and comments before ordering 6BTV. Upcoming CQWW DX Contest in November gave me a little time to decide what will be my antenna gain on 80m and 40m bands. Having 3 el.beam@35 meters and pair of Inverted Vees for 40m and 80m bands I was looking for the reasonable cheap and good performing low band vertical to get more DX & multipliers during contest. WX was fine that day when I spent along with SP5DED more than 6 hours on the roof of the block. Cut off unused mast down to approx. 2,5m height and made first raise. MFJ analyser was very helpful (always have when you tune the new antenna !)therefore I tilt the antenna only four times. Befor that 6BTV was pre-assembled at home according to manual measures and approximated values for the 80m whip. First measurement gave non satisfactory results except 40 meters. I didn't pay attention on the bands above 14MHz for obvious reason. 80m band was resonating at 3323kHz. Wow...antenna is to long, but why ? The answer was a short metal mast used as antenna support. This mast is insulated from the roof and grounding systems. So I shortened 80m tip by 20 cm and Bingo !. The resonansce of SWR=1:1.0 was where I intended to have at 3520kHz. Measured bandwidth gave good 60kHz with acceptable SWR. Radial system, as described in previous articles and comments was rather challenge on the flat and narrow roof. However I have managed to install total of 9 radials (cut as manual says): two for 80m, three for 40m, 2 for 30m and 2 for 20m. Positioning on the roof gave me theoretical advantage on 80m due East and 40m due West.
First SWL on 80@40 at the same evening convinced me that I've made a good decision. Heard loud W7 on 40m and some W3's on 80m. Comparing to Inverted Vee, signals were more stable and sometimes louder by 1S. Noise level of 6BTV is the lowest I heard copared to many verticals used before. I must admit that living in Warsaw gives you unforgetable experience of density of electromagnetic field produced by every home appliance, TV, PC, alarms and even humans carrying mobile phones. That's why I said good bye to rotary beams for VHF - 2m 16ele. Tonna and 6m 5ele.Cushcraft beam using the rest of the cut-off'ed mast for Hustler support and mounting. I'd say where might be the room for improvement antenna quality: 1) Old fashioned feeding point, very unconvienient and assembly difficult to last. 2) Ordininary clamps MUST be replaced by the best quality clamps. I used dyna type wrench and screwed one clamp. "Borrowed" better but used from 6m beam lying on the roof surface already. No more "complains"..hi..hi
Summary: Spending as low as 200$ is a bargain towards easy assembly and performace. Go for it if you have space limitations or need good non directional contesting antenna. 73'ss Wim SP5DDJ
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