| M0KTY |
Rating:  |
2024-05-29 | |
| Fuss free antenna! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
8 YEAR OPERATIONAL REVIEW.
Updating this review as I have now owned and been using this antenna since purchase on the 30th April 2016.
As I write this review (29/05/24) that makes it just over 8 years old enduring the great British weather.
I thought it would be good to write a review for this product now its 8 years old.
So as part of my maintenance routine, yearly I take down the antenna and clean it and lubricate the joints with the aluminium joint compound that Hustler recommend. I also at the same time apply copper grease to the jubilee clips and this year whilst performing the maintenance broke a clip by overnighting it, which I replaced. This year my MRs Mini Vna stopped working so I replaced it with a Rig Expert AA55 Zoom, which made resonating the antenna in the portion of the bands I desired very easy and reliable. I cannot get the 40m Vswr down below 1: 1.7 but at band edges (UK 7.0 - 7.2) it does not rise above 2.6.
The other bands were centred in the 10m, 15m and 20m bands with a Vswr no more than 1: 1.5.
Currently I have added six random length radials placed under my wood decking where the antenna resides. The antenna is mounted at the corner of my plot so the radials only span 90 degrees so very much a compromise.
The aluminium is in very good condition after the 8 years standing and the antenna still works as well as it did within the first year.
All of the plastic black trap caps have split and were letting in water so I cleaned and dried the traps and replaced the black caps on the top of the trap assembly and applied amalgamating tape from the bottom of the plastic cap where it meets the aluminium, winding upwards to the top of the plastic cover and wrapping a few turns onto the aluminium above. Starting at the bottom and working upwards ensures that water runs off each turn and not into it.
So, in 8 years of operation this antenna is simply brilliant. apart from the black plastic traps splitting with UV exposure (as above simple to rectify) the antenna works as good as when new. I cannot recommend this antenna enough with the proviso that yearly maintenance will ensure its longevity.
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I decided to purchase a 4BTV after reading the reviews posted here and in conversation with other operators who already had the antenna.
I hate spending money on any Amateur antenna as I enjoy constructing them myself. I performed an inventory on making one myself and concluded that there was about 10% saving for all the effort and probably a lot of hassle. The instructions are easy to follow and I measured accurately the spacings for the tube lengths WITHOUT radials. The antenna is mounted on a 4' aluminium tube with 18 inches sticking out of the soil. It was mounted into a concrete base and has a 4' copper earth rod hammered into the adjacent soil with a large 10mm earth strap attached to the mounting bracket of the antenna. No other radials. The VSWR on all bands was less than 1:1.3 and tunes up on my Kenwood TS590S without needing the internal tuner on 40m, 20m, 15m and 10m.
As an added bonus it also tunes up on 6m using the internal AMU.
It has been installed over 12 months now and been battered by the SE England coast weather without problem.
I have noticed on some older antenna that reports of the black plastic trap cover has split? So far these are intact with no evidence of cracking or splits. I did send of to obtain the aluminium joint compound hustler recommend and also copper grease for the nuts and bolts and jubilee clips. The only problem I have had is two of the spider CAP hat radials got knocked off (not sure if seagulls have landed on them or wind) but this was easily rectified by adding a wide diameter washer to the screw side of the radial fixing. If you need details email me through Eham or my call sign. Overall a great antenna, super value for the money and would I buy another one? Hell YES!
M0KTY
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| K4DSB |
Rating: |
2022-12-24 | |
| Well Build, Radials a MUST, 40 meter Improved by this |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
I bought a few months ago a Hustler 4BTV from DX Engineering and added the tilt over assembly ( highly recommend ) and radial plate. I installed in the middle of my back yard ( clear of objects ) the tilt over mount is well built and makes for easy adjustments and laying down in storms.. a lot of study, by me, on the radial system and actually testing on the air... with no radials ( at first ) contacts could be made, most close in with fair reports and SWR was pretty low and flat.. at 4 radials ( 25' even spaced ) the antenna was noticeably improved .. even by listening.. then SWR needed to be adjusted, antenna looked narrower in bandwidth... added 20 more radials ( 25' spaced even ..do not cross ) BIG improvement in contact reports and DX working.. all bands resonance ( except 40 meters ) could be brought into a 1.4 :1 swr at my designed frequencies.. However, 40 meters was much higher and resonated high in the band.. all tuning was done ( so far ) with simple sliding of element lengths ( start with 10 meters first then work down the bands ) the solution on 40 meters ( adjust top element for best resonance and then move the capacitive hat ( spider ) up and down slightly for best match.. it worked mine was 7.2Mhz at lowest SWR this is a very good performer ( YOU MUST have radials ) and it seems I got most in the first 24 radials I went to 35 later and not much different that I could measure .. this antenna will last many years DX Engineering has the best documentation and pro helps .. their base is top shelf... good DX to all K4DSB
UPDATE after 6 months... added 20 more radials... used DX Engineering of tuning 20, 15, 10 meter traps slightly lower and re-do 40meter the SWR improved to 1.4 : 1 in middle of phone band... DX I can work well and the antenna is incredibly welll built.. performance is good and I'm happy .. tilt over is so easy and storms cannot threaten this antenna... Hustler ..great job Please note..Early on there was always a slightly stronger signal with my wire dipole, but now I can flip back and forth and the vertical is almost the same..and on higher HF bands the vertical beats my dipole in low angle DX QSO's . |
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| VE9KK |
Rating: |
2022-09-15 | |
| Works as it should |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I order the antenna but beforehand read very carefully the excellent documentation from the DX Engineering installation guide. I ground-mounted the antenna using concrete for the support pole. I have a small lot but was able to put out 40 radials, the longest being 25 feet. I only had to adjust one (20m) trap and fine-adjust the tubing lengths for the CW section of all 4 bands. A word of advice, use (borrow if you don't have one) an antenna analyzer it makes the job fast and easy. I am in the Maritimes in Canada and have had great reports from Europe, Hawaii and Japan. I had an Endfed antenna before and this antenna on average is 2 dBm better. Also, the noise floor did not increase for me going to a vertical but that could be from me being in the country. Overall I am thrilled with this antenna. |
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| VA3VS |
Rating: |
2022-07-26 | |
| works well |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
i bought the 4 btv about 6 years ago. its been sitting in a box, collecting dust!
well, i decided its time to deploy it, and see how it works.
i decided to mount it, on my garden fence, which runs around the complete yard. i made sure i had good electrical connections between the various sides.
this antenna is a trapped 1/4 wave design, so needs its image to perform. eventually i will put down radials on the ground, or just under, but they wont need to be resonant as they are de tuned by the ground.
for now, the fence is plenty as a ground, or image.
think of running /m. your vehicle cant be a tuned 1/4 wave radial on every band you operate! you just need area or capacity.
anyhoo.
i adjusted the lenghs as per the manual, and im impressed. swr plots are excellent, although the top section may need shortened a little as it favours the cw portion of the band, but where i operate its fine.
i listened to some 40m traffic, switching between a 100' dipole at 22' fed with bal line, and the 4btv.
around ontario, and mainly to east coast, sigs were similiar, although the close in stations, i could not hear on the vertical. the low dipole is a cloud warmer, and great out to about 600 miles or so.
stations in the uk were stronger on the 4 btv, although the vertical did sound noisier.
20m was beginning to close, but i did find a few stations, and switched between the low dipole, a hexbeam at 27' and the 4btv.
within na, not much between the dipole and vertical, but the clear winner with headroom was the hexbeam.
in concluding, this is a very easy antenna to deploy, does not require much tuning to get it right on the money, and appears at this time to work as expected.
i will add the 12 and 17m bands shortly and see how that goes, but for now, i have another string to my bow, i can switch between 3 antennas.
definately value for money. |
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| W4FCC |
Rating: |
2021-12-03 | |
| Meh |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I live in an HOA neighborhood, fortunately at the end of a cul de sac with tall trees behind me, so I have been pretty fortunate in the HF antennas I have been able to try (and hide) the last 3 years. Most of my HF operation has been with an end fed wire and 9:1 un-un, with radials, nearly all of it FT8 and FT4, only 25 feet up.
I've had this 4BTV in a box since 2012 and thought I'd break it out and give it a shot-- rigged up a temporary folding ground mount- 40 radials on top of the ground so far, fed with a coax choke at the feedpoint and 50 feet of quality RG-8X.
I had a 20/17 ground plane up for several months, 2 radials per band, feedpoint at 20 feet.
The 4BTV compared to the end fed wire and ground plane... Not great, really. Using DX Engineering's instructions, tuning the traps was pretty straight forward, though I barely get the low end of 40 meters in my setup. Surprisingly, it seems to work fairly well on 40. But... on 20/15 it's clearly not as good as what I had been using. Pretty decent footprint on PSK Reporter, but Very Difficult to make contacts. I also miss the WARC bands- and had planned to add 60/30/17 to this but I don't think it's worth putting any more work into it, really. It's OK if you can't do anything else, I guess-- but even from the SE US to Europe and SA, the fairly low end fed wire outperformed this on all bands. DXCC and 4 state WAS (so far) mostly with that wire, and I can see that's not going to happen with this. It'll come down this weekend, and the wire is going back up.
BTW, I have built and used a lot of verticals over the last 40 years, this is the only one I ever bought. So I understand how they work and how to troubleshoot. Nothing wrong with the installation-- maybe in other circumstances it would be better, but I can't rate it any higher than "OK". |
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| VA3XQ |
Rating: |
2021-07-23 | |
| Low cost HF vertical that really shines |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Probably one of the lowest costing hf vertical antennas on the market. But don't let the low price fool you. Well made excellent part, good instructions and easy to put together. I have had mine mast mounted with raised radials, and now ground mounted with buried radials. Whatever you choose it will perform well. I also added the 30 meter kit to it. And again it has been flawless.
But use an antenna analyzer to tune it and make your life easy. Its a snap to tune but you want it tuned right for whatever modes your going to use it on |
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| VK2EAT |
Rating: |
2020-11-08 | |
| Outstanding |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Purchased the Hustler 4btv around three years ago. This is one soundly built vertical you get exactly what you pay for!
SS quality is very very good with very useful optional accessories.
After reading the well put together instructions several times I settled upon roof mounting with the rf coupling effect employed along with radials all set below the antenna at an angle of 35 degrees as recommended.
This antenna covers 40 mtrs as you would expect when set up correctly you have a very solid contender. I am not a contester but on this setup you will have a ball.
TX is an FT950 and rf is delivered into an AL811H running 400watts out. I have had such a great time I've been stuck on 40mtrs for the last three years! So yes my amateur radio is a lot of fun working many stations around the globe and locally within Oceania. So good is the performance I had opportunity to purchase another 4btv and planned to run them in phase...the results are that good.
Just have a brief look at my log on qrz it tells a bit of the story.
Every little piece of the antenna was well packaged and presented the manual for setup and operation the best I've seen yet.
I've had several verticals over the last 25 years this one's going to be around the vk2eat station a long time. Well done Hustler. |
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| VA6YB |
Rating: |
2020-07-02 | |
| Really good, easy to set up |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I bought the 4BTV second hand fourteen or fifteen years ago and it has been sitting in my garage ever since. It was new in the box but the ham I bought it from had never set it up and, like me kept it in his garage for a very long time. So, we're talking about an antenna that was at least 20 years old and possibly much older. Like a lot of people I had a lot of time on my hands over the last couple of months and finally got it set up. Set up was quick and simple, I used current instructions from the web. 12 radials, 20-30 feet each, no symmetry but best I could do with my yard. No adjustment was required to the set up, less than 1.5 VSWR across the 4 bands first try, no tuner required. The 4BTV is at least the equal of the dipoles, Endfedz and G5RVs I've been using up to this point and I don't need a ladder to work with it. So far, I've mainly been using it for FT8 and a small amount of voice with great results. Again, with lots of time on my hands I've been experimenting and I added the 17M mod with excellent results. 12M will be next. Really good antenna, I'm very pleased with it and regret not setting it up years ago. Band conditions are poor right now but hey it gets better from here eh? |
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| M0XMH |
Rating: |
2019-03-08 | |
| Siting is important |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I've tried to ask the site manager for EHam to allow me to change my original review of the Hustler 4BTV. Alas I didn't get a response. So here is an update in a new review . .
I moved the antenna to another site in the garden which improved its performance quite noticeably. Due to illness, I had time last year to play with the siting and noted when it was moved to its original placement, the antenna was not getting out anywhere near as well as it is now elsewhere.
I have changed nothing in the antenna radials pattern or materials, the mounting or whatever else is as it was and needs to perform well - except the previous siting of it.
I'm able to consistently reach out to mainland Europe at 10W SSB and just beyond on FT-8 with good signal reports on PSK Reporter. I can hit the East coast of the US with the right band conditions and with 10W or above, with some reasonable results on FT-8.
However, I'm unable to report on SSB phone performance as despite holding a full UK licence for over 5 years, I have yet to get anyone, anywhere to respond to a QSO for me so that I can have some idea how the antenna is getting out in this mode. |
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| K1VCT |
Rating: |
2016-11-27 | |
| *** UPDATE *** |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
This is an update to my previous review.
I've been looking for a nice day to get up on the flat roof and add a second set of radials to my 4BTV. In so doing, I was able to find some nice 1/4 inch rings, that had ample space for lots of wires. Four rings were prepared, one set of radials per ring, and those were tightened up to the Hustler base.
Well, folks, that changed things considerably. IT DID NOT CHANGE THE RESONANCE, not one bit. I recorded all the previous (and somewhat low in frequency) resonant frequencies for 10, 15, 20 and 40 meters. Before I added the extra radials I "thought" I had sharp "SWR notches". I'm using a RigMaster AA-54 to view everything, and no... I was viewing just viewing each band at a time, not the whole spectrum, which will obviously look like sharp SWR notches.
What I found was that the tuning of the segments and traps was now much more critical, since the acceptable SWR range was now much narrower. I've been told that's a good thing! Or so they say in the both the DX-Engineering and Hustler manuals.
At any rate, the antenna went up and down countless times as I raised the resonance of each band with trap adjustments.
Trap adjustment is not hard, but a little goes a long way. The 10 meter trap actually takes a fairly good amount of movement for show movement in resonance. I had to adjust it in increments of 1/2 inch or so, then fine tune, and it was only low by about 500kc. Since I don't plan (currently) of working CW I tuned for the middle of phone section of each band, based on the range allowed to Extra class licenses. The other traps each needed almost minute changes to make fairly substantial difference in resonance. About 1/4 inch max, in tiny nudges of the trap covers makes a big change. Once you get close, you can fine tune with the segment lengths.
Fine tune went well, and I've got the lowest part of the dip in resonance very very close to the middle of my desired operating range.
Here's what I also found out - they tell you to adjust 10, then 15, then 20 meter traps, and finally the extension above the spiders for 40 meters. In practice, I adjusted 10 meters, then adjusted 15 meters and found I needed to back and tweak 10 meters again. The 15 meter band then required additional but very slight tweaking. Moving to 20 meters, it got adjusted, and I rechecked 10 and 15 meters and they had not appreciably changed, if at all. Finally 40 meters was set, and every band was double checked. Nothing else changed. That was good, because mounting the 4BTV on its base, was beginning to tire me out a bit!
Someplace in the mix, I stripped a band clamp, but "repaired it" by squeezing the housing for the screw. Fixed ok and back in place.
And finally, lacking goo for the trap covers, I made sure they were pushed down solidly, then gave 'em a few wraps at the upper edge with some Co-Ax Seal tape. I don't think water ingress will be an issue.
Long update, I know, but hopefully some of what I passed along will help somebody else.
The 4BTV has been GREAT so far. I'm in SE Florida, and so far SSB contacts all over the east and west coast of the USA, to Costa Rica, Columbia, Croatia and Italy, Cape Verde Isles, Madeira Isls, and Osaka Japan, all possible when running the AL-800 at about 400watts. My closest contact was in the daytime, about 60 miles away, but it was fairly poor. At 250 miles, daytime contacts are very good, allowing me to work stations in central FL.
Many thanks to all who helped me along the way! |
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