| WA7NDD |
Rating:  |
2002-09-10 | |
| Installed elevated 6BTV |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I bought this vertical because it is a true 1/4 wave vertical at a very good price. Also I can not climb anymore and I wanted a good DX antenna. I knew before I bought it I would install it in an elevated location a few inches above the end of my house above a metal roof, and take eight radials out the other direction laying them on a flat roof five feet away. I am not one of thoes who run out and install an antenna in a half-a-day and call it good. I wanted this antenna to work well. I installed the radial connections, and guy ropes to be disconnected quickley, because I mounted the vertical on a wooden mast that can lay over from the edge of the house and make all repairs and adjustments with only climbing to the base on a ladder to disconnect the two radial connections, and dissconect the three guy ropes with a simble click out at the point of attachment at the buiding around the antenna. This all took three weeks to do and tune the antenna.
Tuning the antenna was easy. The instructions said as the counterpoise gets better the antenna gets shorter. I set all adjustments to zero in cluding the 80 meter whip. I first looked at the tuning with just the metal roof, which is substantial, connected. Using and MFJ 259 analizer all bands but 80 meters were just fine with in the band edges, 40 meters was 2:1 starting a 7Mhz and stayed with in 2:1 past 7.3 Mhz. 10 meters covered the first 500 Kc's within 2:1,15 meters and 20 meters were all with in 2:1.
80 meters with 30" of whip showing was 35Kc wide centered on 3.44Mhz.
I connected the second set of wire radials cut to the instructions suggested length. 10 meters droped right in with 2:1 at 28Mhz and 2:1 at 29Mhz. 40 meters moved to 2:1 at 7.1 Mhz and 1:1 at 7.3 Mhz (The antenna got shorter). 10Mhz, 14Mhz, 15 Mhz, were dead on less the 2:1 across the entire band, and 10Mhz it was 1:1. I ended up cutting the 80 meter whip twice just to check the frequency change with the first cut. I ended up with a 40Khz band width centered on 3.7Mhz, and a 22" whip.
I never adjusted, or cut any of the tubing after I set everything to zero. I also did not want to cut the tubing to adjust 40 meters down to 2:1 at 7.0Mhz I left it at 7.1mhz. Everytime I adjusted the 80 meter whip, all I had to do was disconnect the two radial connections and lower the mast and put it back up.
I have alrady been able to work DX. I woked YV5SSB Sunday, and a JA3 the week before both with 59 reports. My dipoles did not give me 59 reports from DX stations. I have done a lot of A/B testing with the vertical and dipoles (home brew up 33 feet)just listening on the bands.Most bands in the states execpt for 10 meters I could tell little difference. On 10 meters I could hear more and stonger signals. But when the signal was from out of the U.S. to the east of me, I live in Idaho, there was a difenate two "S" units almost every time. The difference in the long hall signals between the dipole and the vertical gave the edge to the vertical. This is exactaly what I bought the vertical for. They are a well known low angele radiator when INSTALLED right. High is usually better.
In "my opinion" if you are not using radials your on water. Most of us are not on water, ( I am talking 1/4 wave verticales here.) and no mater what the advertisment says, even Hustler with its 4 foot pipe pounded into the ground and no radials needed routine, you need them. If you don't then you need a good recipe for cooked earth worms becasue that is where your RF is and what it is doing!
This antenna is built well, but does need guys if it is mounted like mine 10' off the ground. I made a special connector for my guy rope. I cut a donut shape from a piece of 1/4" very high quality fiber glass with three 1/4" holes on the outside edges. I slipped the donut over the top of the tubing above 20 meter coil. I parted metal cable eyes,or loops and put them through the 1/4" holes in the donut then put my nylon rope around the eyes and tyed them. I placed chain type spring opening links at the the other end of the ropes for quick disconnect. If a wet rope was going to bother my vertical, I never find out now.
I hope this has helped. I have read about so many hams that have had troubles with verticals, and most of it, at least to me, seems to be poor installation practices. Not taking time and doing it right.
One final thing. Yes, when I switch to the vertical I do hear more noise. But if you listen it not just noise it is more singnals, many very far away. You are now hearing 360 degrees. I have run many older radios in the past, but I do like my ICOM 706MKIIG. I do use a little secret to help me out a lot on the low bands. It's called a Clear Speech Base unit. Between it the the DSP in the raido I can hear signals come right out of the noise when all this is turned on. The Clear Speech makes the audio sound a bit like talking though water at times, but what the hack, I could not even here them before.
73's
Jim Griffith, WA7NDD
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| KC8TLF |
Rating: |
2002-08-20 | |
| For around 180 shipped, you could do alot better in my opinion. |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I'm a new ham, so you can take my review with a grain of salt? Anyways, I bought this antenna so I could have all the bands and use almost no space. I bought some parts and some wire and had made a dipole for my first antenna. I didn't want the mess of dipoles running around the yard. Well, I got the Huslter 6btv and read the directions. Well, I was totally misinformed. I knew about the radials, but now how big they really had to be. Basically, they are the size of dipoles. I guess it doesn't make sense to me. Anyways, I decided to go by the directions and do teh ground mounting to try and save some face. Well, you have to drive a pole 4' into the ground it said. (Easier said than done when all you can find is a normal hammer. Thank goodness I lift weights) Between all pounding in the pole and the ground rods, I got quite a workout. Anyways, it seemed no matter how many ground rods I put in the ground, the antenna would not tune. I tried taking the wires from my homeade 40 meter dipole and get it to tune anywhere close to 40 meters. I couldn't get it to tune at all. I tried moving it around the yard. (More work!) and no luck. I had read that another ham had used his fence. I thought, well, I've spend all this time, I'm not giving up on it yet. Well, it says in the instructions that the better the ground the shorter it will be. I ended up making the antenna short as possilbe. It still needed to be shorter, but I was getting really tired of it and it was real close to where I wanted to talk. Started doing some listening and there was less air noise than my little homebrew dipole. It seemed I could hear most people decently. I tried to call for them and no luck. I made call after call night after night. Once in awhile I would have someone that was coming in really strong say that they could barely hear me and I'd have to repeat myself. It could be my aluminium sided house, shed, and fenced in area. It could also be my poor ground. I finally gave up on it and made a dual 40/80meter dipole. |
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| KB6HRT |
Rating: |
2002-07-22 | |
| Radials are important |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| Have not installed that antenna myself but have had Ham friends who have with good results, ground mounted they work good with out radials and roof mounted they work good with radials, I hve used Hustler antennas for years on mobiles with good results and the company is very good with technical help. 73s |
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| K8BY |
Rating: |
2002-07-22 | |
| It is a well constructed antenna. |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I am just about ready to install a 6btv..can anyone give me advice on closeness to house and trees, as far as the installation goes...I do not have some real estate but it is covered with trees, sidewalks etc...I understand they advise putting the vertical in a wide open area...that just is not possible at my qth...tns..Gary..K8BY |
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| KB9 |
Rating: |
2002-04-10 | |
| love the 6btv |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I recently bought the 6btv and have had good results. Installation was easy, with only one problem wich Gary (one smart guy) at Hustler straightened right out. 10-20 meter proform just as good as my dipoles. If you have limited space this is the antenna for you. On psk it is awesome! |
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| KB9WMG |
Rating: |
2002-02-03 | |
| GREAT ANTENNA !! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| This is really for the 5-BTV the difference between the 4 and 5 BTV is the screw on 80m trap on the top. Difference between these and the 6-BTV is the addition of the 30m trap. All three are basically the same design overall. It went together easily. Very good instructions. Mine is ground mounted with radials. SWR was perfect right from the start using only the assembly measurements. No adjustments after she went up. Have worked DX from Russia to Japan and in between on all bands. You can't work 12 or 17 with it even with a tuner. Have twin lead dipole up for those. Looks good, unobtrusive, good for limited space. Nice deal..price is right too. |
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| NT3G |
Rating: |
2002-02-01 | |
| Great Antenna |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
This antenna is great.
I first tested it at my QTH in southeastern Virginia without radials; with my 100 watt rig, I worked Japan on 40 cw, along with a number of other DX stations on 40 and above. The received signal reports were generally good and that surprised me. I was primed for disappointing radiation performance without a decent ground. In fact, after a short CQ on 30 meters, no fewer than six stations responded. In 50 years, that has never happened before. Needless to say, this performance significantly damped my enthusiasm for installing radials! I kept asking myself why I was doing it. In the dozen or so QSOs I made with the radials, I noticed no difference in reports but that is based on casual, non-scientific activity. I worked a 4X4 on 80 meter CW without much trouble but efficiency is plainly down on 80 meters relative to the other bands. It would be nice to be able to offer more objective data on performance, but that is not available to me.
I am using 20 radials, mostly 35 feet long but a few just under 20 feet (about 600 feet of wire). Radials are #14 insulated wire because that is what I had. Uninsulated would have probably been fine. I decided against using the recommended tuned radials since it seemed like more work and I thought it unlikely to improve performance. I did include the chokes (10 turns of coax around a 6 inch diameter form) at the antenna and at the rig, as recommended by Hustler. Coax run was just under 100 feet of RG-213 plus. No TVI or RF in the shack.
SWR is well under 1.7 above 10 MHz, as measured on the built-in meter on my FT-920. On 7 Mhz, SWR is about 3.1 at 7.3 MHz and 1.7 at 7.0 MHz. On 3.5 MHz, SWR was 2.8 at 3.500 MHz and 3.2 at 3.575. These readings are pretty much in line with the advertised specs. I found that I had to shorten all of the physical lengths from the recommended starting positions for in-ground radials.
The antenna is un-guyed. Kind of. I found that standard 1" ID PVC plumbing fixtures fit over the Hustler aluminum tubes very nicely. I slipped a Tee fitting ($.49) over the six foot bottom section of tubing and attached the Tee to an eight foot length of 1" ID PVC pipe. The other pipe end was then bolted to a wooden deck. This keeps the antenna reasonably plumb up to a height of maybe 10 feet, where it bends slightly in 35 mph gusts (which we are experiencing as I write). I believe the antenna as supported will withstand much higher gusts. The antenna is well-made and looks sleek standing in the yard.
So what about vertical antenna efficiency? How bad are the Hustler's traps? How good is this antenna anyhow? What matters to me is how well this antenna performs relative to my next best alternative. Not how well it performs relative to a quarter-wave vertical over an infinite ground plane. For me, the reference is also not a horizontal dipole at a half-wavelength high on 30, 40, or 80. The trees on my lot are short so my reference antenna is a low, and probably short, dipole. At low radiation angles, I suspect the Hustler, with my ground system, will outperform the reference. On 10 and 15, the reference dipole might be better, but probably not by much and not always. Moreover, the dipole is going to be directional (shame on the ARRL for their comparisons of vertical and horizontal antennas by reference only to radiation in the maximum radiation in the horizontal plane.) The dipole's directionality would cut down some QRN, some QRM, and some signals you want badly to hear!
FWIW, I measured the DC resistance of the traps with a Fluke #73 DVM. I found 10M: 0.2; 15: 0.1; 20: 0.1; 30: 0.2; 80: 0.3; measurements in ohms. A rough estimate of efficiency (relative to a 67 foot quarter wave vertical over a perfect ground plane) for 80 M is 3 ohms radiation resistance divided by (30 ohms ground resistance + 3 ohms radiation resistance + 1 ohm trap resistance) = 0.125 or 12%. That's about 9 dB down from something probably not attainable anyway. Actually, the SWR at resonance on 80M is about 1.1:1 on the meter, suggesting that at RF, the traps (or the radials?) are taking a greater toll than assumed and actual radiation is more likely down 12 dB from that 67 foot reference. But how many dB down from a 35 foot high, 135 foot dipole at radiation angles on the order of 10-20 degrees? That's the real reason to buy the Hustler.
The last antenna I used was the mast and rigging on a sailboat. I used 100 square feet of copper as a ground, in particular for those times when the boat was in relatively fresh water. Over salt water, however, that antenna (more or less a vertical) was incredible. I don't think the Hustler is as good on 80 but I find it to be comparable on 40 thru 20, and actually superior on 15 and 10 meters.
I'm glad to have it.
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| K5VOA |
Rating: |
2001-12-19 | |
| Add 12 & 17 meters yourself for a better antenna |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
After my review of the 6BTV, I have had several requests for info on how I added 12 & 17 meters to my 6BTV. Here is a brief description: Assemble a Hustler MO-3 mast with Hustler 12 & 17 meter resonators on the Hustler VX-1 multiband adapter plate. The MO-3 needs to be mounted about a foot away and kept parallel to the 6BTV. Here's how: Fabricate an aluminum “T” by forming two “L” brackets out of aluminum strip. The strip should be about ¾ inch wide. Drill a hole near one end that will allow you to bolt the MO-3 mast to the strip. The strip must be long enough that when bent into “L” shapes they will hold the MO-3 about a foot or so from the 6BTV. Turn the “L’ strips back to back so you have a “T”. Attach the top of the “T” to the 6BTV (antenna portion, not the base bracket) with hose clamps. Insure good electrical contact. Also insure the “T” can’t touch the grounded base bracket. Bolt the MO-3 to the bottom of the “T”. Near the top of the MO-3, fabricate a stand-off insulator out of PVC or Plexiglas to keep the MO-3 steady and attached parallel to the 6BTV. Adjust resonators for minimum SWR. Other bands should be affected very little. Mine works well at 500 watts SSB. Higher power 12 & 17 meter resonators can be made by modifying 15 & 20 meter “Super-Resonators. Good luck.
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Earlier 5-star review posted by K5VOA on 2001-04-23
I have had years of experience with verticals. I have owned the Hustler 4BTV, Butternut HF6V, and Cushcraft R5. Now I recently purchased a 6BTV. Looking at the price and the workmanship & materials, you get a lot for your money. With any vertical, location and proper assembly is key to success. I have mine ground mounted with about 30 radials. There is no substitute for a good ground. Take your time and do it right. I was a bit concerned with the QST review in which the author had to cut a piece off and declared the assembly instructions were wrong. I have determined the instructions were right (at least for my soil conditions). My 6BTV "hears" better than my inverted L and I get better reports. SWR is as advertised. I fashioned an aluminum standoff bracket and a Hustler MO-3 with 12 & 17 Meter Resonators. I have all band coverage now with no impact on other bands. Reports on 12 & 17 are great. The solid construction and materials are better than many other much higher priced verticals. The Mineral Wells Texas guys have had a good product for a long time. |
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| W0LPZ |
Rating: |
2001-12-03 | |
| A great antenna with some |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
The antenna works great.....after adding the radials. Manufacturer states "no radials needed" but they sure help. Using an MFJ 949E tuner, it was "touchy" to tune without radials. After adding radials, the tuner really doesn't care and tuning is very smooth and non-critical. SWR drops to 1:1 and indicated power out is 110 watts.
Note: DO NOT ground radials. In fact, the Hustler states to insulate even the tip end of the radials. I used common #12 solid house wire, insulated.
Using the MFJ 249B antenna anaylizer, it shows 51 ohms at 1.1:1 SWR at 28.500 Mhz. I still need to resonate the other bands. |
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| VE3DWT |
Rating: |
2001-09-24 | |
| Impressed with my First Vertical |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I consulted the EHAM.NET reviews in deciding to purchase the 6BTV. This is the first vertical antenna I've ever owned. Previously I only had simple dipoles. The installation took me an afternoon, with delays mainly being due to me initially installing the 10m trap backwards. Once this was fixed, I was able to tune 10m, 15m, and 20m to a very good < 1.5 SWR for the CW portions of the bands. (Note : The antenna is ground mount without any radials) To be honest, I had always heard a vertical antenna works all-directions equally poor, but after using this antenna with only 25W, I've been able to contact Algeria, Lebanon, and many others SSB, with Australia, Mauritius, and Malta CW. During many QSO's, I get the same signal report from my contact using 200W + into a multi-element beam. I would highly recommend this antenna for someone that wants to work DX multiband, but doesn't have the space or funds for a larger tower mount antenna. |
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