| K9CRT |
Rating:      |
2009-10-01 | |
| Traps Need Adjustment |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
This is a great value @ $125.00, well built and worthy of all the good reviews. However if your QTH has a good ground system with proper radials and a good soil condition the traps will be tuned wrong. Hustler warns against retuning them and even indicates your warranty will be void. At my qth the 4btv was over 1MHZ off. Hooking up a MFJ 259 and it showed this miss tuning.
10m resonated @ 27.400 (at the high end of CB band)
15m resonated @ 20.500 mhz
20m resonated @ 13.400 mhz
40m was the only band within specs and came in around 1.5
After fighting not tuning the traps for 2-3 hours and up & down several times I finally took the plunge and everything fell into place. Now all bands are 1.5 or less across the entire band. BTW if you buy your Hustler from DX Enging. they include instructions on how too tune these traps PLUS assure you any 4-5-6 BTV from them will be warranty if you tune the traps.
You read other reviews about how they just opened up the box put this antenna together and drove a 4 foot pipe into the ground and it is perfect with perfect s.w.r. and this is the reason. Hustler tunes the traps for this operator. Yes he has great s.w.r. but he also has a very poor (if he only knew) working stick in the mud that works equally poor in all directions. |
|
| W8JX |
Rating:      |
2009-09-22 | |
| Decent Antenna |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I bought this antenna used 15 years ago and placed it out in a field next to house. It is fed with 175 feet of coax and mounted on a 6 foot steel fence post driven 5 feet in ground. Silly thing still works great and is very flat on 40M too. (1.3 or less) It has no radials and responds well to tweaking and tuning. Many years ago I added a 80M add on kit to it and it has about 60kc below 2 to 1 with 1.3 at resonance. It works well and always get good signal reports. Mostly use in on 40 and it gets to Australia or Europe well (59 or better)running about 800 watts. It really works better than it should and has required no repairs in 15 years of use. |
|
| W1EMQ |
Rating:      |
2009-07-10 | |
| Excellent antenna |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| Bought my 4BTV in 1971, used it in 3 QTHs both ground and roof mounted with radials. Put it away after 4th relocation to Central NY and it sat in the garage for 17 years. On July 9, I drove a 4' pipe into the backyard, put the antenna together, mounted it and attached coax. Fired up my Drake TR-4 on 40 cw, called CQ, and worked stations of 500-900 miles away with 599 sigs. This is a great 4-band antenna with provisions to add 30 meters and 75/80 meters with options. Although I don't have one yet, plan to order from DXEngineering the female coax mount for the base for quick connect/disconnect of coax. This antenna is less expensive than a beam, does not require a rotor, takes up little space, survives all the elements for decades, and is a solid performer. |
|
| N8CMQ |
Rating:      |
2009-05-20 | |
| Great vertical antenna! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I inherited my 4btv from a silent key in the early eighties. I set it up ground mounted with many random radials, and it worked the world!
I modified it per a QST article by Sevic and extended the lengths and the bandwidth improved!
I went off the air for an extended time, and am setting it up once again, however, I am being a little more scientific this time, I have 130 30+ foot radials on the ground this time!
For a 30+ year old, rebuilt twice antenna, it has held up fine and works like a dream! |
|
| WB3DDF |
Rating:      |
2009-02-10 | |
| Excellent Antenna |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| Have had my 4BTV for about two months. Installation was very easy. The manual was written well. I installed it with the DX Engineering fold over mount, SO239 connector and radial plate. I first ground mounted it without radials. Then after I install 20 radials the antenna came alive. I now have 60 radials and decided to tune it. I bought the MFJ 259B analyzer and that was a big help. I was able to tune the antenna nicely by making small adjustments to the traps. For those that gave reviews for other BTV verticals and said that they couldn't get it to tune must either have a defective antenna or bad installation because I was able to tune my 4BTV without a problem. Never been a big fan of verticals in the past because they never worked for me, now I know why, I didn't add radials. I highly recommend the Hustler vertical. |
|
| K9FON |
Rating:     |
2008-12-24 | |
| radials are MANDATORY |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I just got this verticle and put it up. When i started out i did not plan to install radials I just wanted to see if i could get the antenna to tune however, I plan on installing about 50 radials later when the weather gets nicer. I could not get it to tune at all on 10 meters and i even shortened the traps. No avail. So i broke out the snow shovel and shoveled a path for 6 radials. Fortunately, the ground was not frozen so the ground staples went in easy. After installing the 6 radials the antenna tuned. For some reason the antenna is hard to tune on 10 meters but 15 20 and 40 tune very easily. I plan to install more radials this spring or summer but for now it works pretty well.
But for anyone that is planning to buy a 4 BTV dont try to use it with no radials. It won't tune. Plan on installing at least between 20 and 60 radials. |
|
| PD1JP |
Rating:      |
2008-10-10 | |
| Excellent performer |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
I imported this antenna from DX Engineering into PA. Compliments for the excellent service from DX Engineering. After installing it on the roof top here at 10m height, I had to recalibrate all traps. It took me about 4-5 hours to get it tuned. With 4 radials for each band, 10m, 15m, and 20m, SWR is under 1.5 on all three entire bands. On 40m I only have 2 radials pointing East and Southeast, SWR there is still under 2.0 across 70% of the band.
I have tested it against full size 1/4 GP's on 10m and 20m, and the 4BTV does the same job. It is not a great DX antenna for 40m, but still I have heard some VK over here with it. When I work into Europe, I easily break through pile-ups with just 25W, probably because it does an impressive job at the somewhat higher take off angles.
It is well constructed. But I do not like how it bends around the lower tube section when it's windy. Here 15km from the coast, it is causing too much stress on the bottom parts. So I have modified the antenna and replaced the top 32mm diameter tube (the 1.5m above the spider) with a 10mm diameter tube. Now the wind load on the top section has decreased, decreasing the stress on the lower parts. It's electrical performance has not changed with this modification. |
|
| DC2KN |
Rating:      |
2008-09-09 | |
| nice Antenna |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Important thing first : I like this Antenna !
Last weekend I did set it up in a semi-portable operation. I had no Antenna Analyzer with me and tuned it with the internal SWR Reader of my FT-450AT. The location was far away from optimal, and I also had only one Radial per Band. Within two hours I had it set up with SWRs that the internal Tuner of the FT-450AT could tune it easily.
Nice Antenna !!
DC2KN |
|
| W0XXX |
Rating:      |
2008-07-04 | |
| It works! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Mine is ground mounted with 4 radials per band. The radial system is snaked around a garden area, and not spaced out at the base of the antenna like it should be. So the installation is a bit challenged.
The swr curves fall where they should, and it tunes. Tonight on 40m (4 july 2008) I worked east coast, deep south, and midwest easily.
Take the time and effort, add a good radial system, and tune it correctly. You wont be dissapointed. |
|
| KC8NTP |
Rating:      |
2008-03-29 | |
| Best antenna on 40m I've used |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I am completely blown away by this antenna on 40m. I was helping out the people in the WPX contest yesterday (I don't compete myself), and could not believe the DX that I was getting on 40m. I worked quite a few VKs, ZLs, JAs, and just about every part of the world imaginable. The one that floored me was a station in central LU that said I was S9+15Db! I loved the fact that a lot of DX was working splits up into the General part of the band. I hope that I can get to a test session so that I can upgrade and work more DX on 40m; since I have noticed that most of the DX does not work split up into the General section most of the time. What was also amazing was the fact that I was breaking DX pileups on 40m with just 100w! I am a believer now when it comes to low-band DX and verticals!
The thing is, I still have the antenna ground mounted with only 2 radials. On my next days off I am going to put it up into the air and see what happens. K9EX does have a very valid point. I am sure that I am going to play heck -- once I eliminated some of the ground losses -- getting it to tune to resonance. I also know that once I get it tuned that the feed-point impedance is going to be lower than what it is ground mounted. Figuring out a tuning scenario is going to be the fun part, as I already know that tuning one band is going to affect the other; hopefully I can figure out a shunt feed that will work on all bands. After I have done a little studying, I realize that these type of antennas rely quite a bit on ground losses to make tuning of the antenna easier. I also found that an antenna analyzer is an investment that every HAM should make, since you can find out feed-point impedance and resonance almost quicker than you can blink.
Again, K9EX is very right, if you have a poor grounding system you should not have a problem, but once you improve the system and reduce ground losses you will get into trouble rather quickly. When I ground mounted mine I used a piece of mast pipe that is 6ft long and pounded into the ground with 2ft exposed; I also used an 8ft ground rod and two 33ft radials, and I played heck getting it to tune, so I know that if my ground system was improved more I would have even more trouble getting it to tune. If somebody does not want to deal with the trouble that is involved with tuning this antenna with a good ground system, they should just do a simple install and leave it at that.
I have had a chance to use it on 15m and it worked fairly well. As far as 10m goes, I have not seen an opening here to test it. I will be doing a mod to it for 17m in the near future as it is one of my favorite bands.
If you want an antenna that does fairly well on 20m-10m, and does a fantastic job on 40m this is the antenna for you. Be forewarned, however, this is not a plug-and-play antenna, and an antenna analyzer is very helpful with tuning.
73, John, KC8NTP, east central Nevada |
|