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Hustler 6-BTV vertical HF antenna

C

CDX8412

Well-Known Member
Apr 4, 2005
295
203
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For those of you looking for a decent HF antenna that is easy to install and not too overbearing so as to upset neighbors, you might look at the Hustler antenna series of HF verticals.

When I got my General ticket recently, I needed an antenna that could get me on the HF bands, and I couldn't spend too much money. I have a G5RV but at this time, I am not going to put it up until I have a few other things done, so I got the Hustler 6-BTV 6 band vertical.

I have the antenna mounted on the ground according to the installation instructions. I pounded a 4 foot mast into the ground, left 18" above ground and mounted the antenna to the mast.

I got the antenna from DXEngineering and got their tilt over base too, which makes it easy to bring the antenna down to make tuning changes.

With the antenna, I have worked into Ireland, eastern Europe, Russia, Croatia, South America and of course North America.
Just running my Yaesu FT-847, 100 watts max and an MFJ-941E antenna tuner. This is only in the past month, so I am pretty happy with the antenna. I have worked stations on 10, 17, 20 & 40 meters.

If you need to hide the antenna, you can slip PVC tubing over it and put a flag on it 8)

I am in the process of putting radials on the ground around the antenna, but the tuner does a good job of making the radio work on all bands with the antenna.

antenna-3.jpg

antenna-2.jpg
 

Paul looks good,i'm glad that it's working out for you. It also sounds like you jumped into HF head first :D BTW whats the radials on the ground? counter poise?
 
Yes, Hustler recommends you install radials on the ground to increase antenna performance, efficiency and lower angle of radiation.

I went to the big box home supply store (sponsor of Tony Stewart & the #20 car, not the evil sponsor of the evil Hendricks #48 car :x ) and got a 500 ft. spool of #14 ga. stranded c*pper insulated wire (also much cheaper at Home Depot than at Lowes) . (apparently, c@pper is a censored word here)
I cut the radials to the lengths recommended for each band, soldered some ring terminals on each end, and laid them out onto the ground. I used old wire hangers that I had from decades of wearing uniforms (uniform services never seem to pick up the old hangers), straightened them out, cut them into 6" lengths with a Dremel tool, and folded them into 'U' shaped clips to stick into the ground to hold the radial wire.


They recommend as many radials as you can do. At this time, I have 2 per band (12 total) and I've got enough wire left from the orginal 500' to make one more set. The hard part is not cutting them with the lawn mower :shock:
 
Years ago, I took a linoleum knife and cut slits in my lawn for the radials. You can bury them a few inches deep and not affect performance. Kind of a pia to do, but so is unwinding them from the lawnmower and reinstalling new ones.

Rich
 
CDX8412, I can see the wire and how you have the ant. mounted but for some one who doesnt know much what is the black object in the picture. thanks
 
Hi Sarge,

That black thing on the ground is a choke.
The antenna manufacturer recommends you roll a coil of at least 6 turns of coax with about a 6" diameter to prevent RF traveling along the coax shield. That could cause interference and the choke helps to prevent that.
What I did was buy a short length of PVC pipe with a 6" diameter. Got it in the plumbing department of Home Depot. Wrapped my coax around the outside of the PVC then wrapped it all in Scotch 33+ electrical tape. I did the same thing at the radio end too, as the manufacturer recommends.
 
Haven't had a lot of rain or humidity around here this spring yet. Today may tell, as there is some rain on the way.
I still need to make final adjustments so as to make it as resonant as possible without the aid of the tuner.
I know a guy that has an antenna analyser and he will assist me in final tuning one of these days.
If there are any issues regarding weather, I will post them here.
 
If you have a problem with the lawnmower running afoul of the radials lying on the ground, make up a bunch of c*pper staples out of the leftover radial wire. Take a piece of the wire maybe 3 or 4 inches long and bend it into a loop, then push the loop down over one of the radials and push it as deep into the soil as you can. Do this wherever the radial doesn't want to lie down perfectly flat. Old trick.
 
And it helps if you take about 1/4 inch of the end of that "staple" and fold it back on it'self to make like a fishing hook barb. So it does not pop back up at the least opportune time.

Really, we can't type C@pper here?

How about C0pper?

that is pretty sad.
 
upset neighbors

Well he Don't have my neighbor I had all kinds
of problems with one ( SO CALLED NEIGHBOR)
I have other words for this neighbor!<can not stand it><can not stand it>
 
Nice old thread.

When I was looking at ground mounted verticals my wife thought most of them looked "ugly" with the various pieces and parts. She really hated the Butternut vertical picture. :)

Butternut HF9V 80-6 9-Band Vertical Antenna [HF9V] - $550.00 : Bencher, Inc., Amateur Radio Products

So when I showed a picture of the 6BTV it passed the "visual" test.

Ground mounting was easy and I found that even without the tilt mount it was easy to remove for tuning. I just would loosen the bottom clamp and slide the antenna off the base.

For radials I found when the yard was muddy it was fairly fast and easy to use a real large flat blade screwdriver to poke the wire a few inches into the ground and then put down a metal turf staple every foot or two.

My coaxial I ran through an irrigation hose buried about a foot underground. Being under the radials seemed to negate it picking up any RF on the shield.

FWIW remember that ground mounted radials are detuned so you do not need to cut them to any particular length. I cut about 35 radials to fit the yard space. They range from 15 to 40 feet long.

I did purchase the DX engineering radial plate as it seemed like a convenient way to connect the radials. With its build quality I should be able to use if for the rest of my radio career for some sort of vertical.
 

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