Impressive job. You really showed how one can overcome some tough situations when getting a vertical antenna up and running. Keep up the good work and best 73 - Rich, W2FKN
Thanks for your excellent video. Looks like you followed the DX Engineering "manual." I installed one in coastal Georgia where the soil is sand which has more advantages than disadvantages. It's common practice here to dig holes, even surface water wells with a garden hose and a section of conduit. This worked well for me. I laid out radials and covered with did. Not expensive. I used an electric sidewalk grass trimmer to dig the "ditch" to the house. Sand offers poor ground, and I drove 3 ground rods at the house to improve grounding. Adjusting the antenna for low SWR is essential. 80M isn't broad on this antenna, so you have to pick your frequency of operation. In 2013 sunspots were abundant and I grew tired of working Europe on SSB. It's a great antenna when installed as you did. Low angle of radiation great for DX.
Nice video, John. I've had a modified 4 btv for about 15 years. I also used the ground plate and tilting mount from DX Engineering. With about 48 radials. After a few times mowing, the radials were hidden. The antenna works great. Numerous DX QSO'S.
Nice work John! I did a similar installation with a Butternut HF6V at my old QTH in upstate NY. Once the grass grows in a little bit, the dogs and mailman won't even know the radials are there. Nice to see an old face from the Splitrock ARA days still hamming. 73 from N2NJZ, The Kid.
I have the 5 BTV and I have it attached to a 8ft fence post into Minnesota black dirt with only Rg-213 and a 4ft ground rod and it plays very nicely. Love my HF vertical 👍👍
I have the 4BTV up and working great, I also have the 5BTV, I opened the box, put it together, and decided it wasn't worth putting up for 1 band, so it is hanging in the garage. lol
I installed a 4BTV last fall similar to yours and following DX instructions. Very happy with the performance and without any other modifications found in addition to the standard 40, 20, 15, & 10 I can easily tune 6, 12 and 17.
Good luck with your install. The accessories cost more than the antenna. Overall I did not save that much money but had fun. Thank you for your comment. I appreciate it.
"One wire that's proud" 🤣Great video, easy to watch, I have the same setup and love it! I moved mine this week and laying the radials again today and tomorrow so I came back to your video to reminde myself of a good setup!👍 I get 6m QSOs with this as well, it's actually tuned 6m in and the rest under 1.5:1. I added a lightweight flag at the top and have it up year round in my HOA!
Nice content. I have the 6BTV also with three ground rods and LMR400. Mine was installed seven years ago with 1,000 ft of radials and put down in the spring here in Michigan and by early summer you could NOT find the radials.....now after seven years, the radials are about four to six inches under the soil. After a few years you will need to get new trap covers as the sun will degrade the plastic. I also use paracord as guys and dog run stakes to keep the antenna up during 30-60mph winds as well as ice issues. Enjoy!
Great job John! N8CMQ here, and I have been using a modified 4BTV for many decades! I have added two wires to the system, that added all of 80 meters and most of 160 meters! It helps to have some tall trees to put the wires into, but the wind makes the added bands disappear occasionally... Right now, I am inactive, as I have repairs to do, and new coax to run. Animals like to chew! As for my radial field, I have three sets of wires down, as the first two sets aged and turned into oxides, and I am not sure about this last set! It would be nice if I could get permanent wire to put down!
I have 4btv and used 750 feet of wire for my radials. There are 40 of them between 15 and 35 feet long circumferential. I i buried pvc pipe 3 inches deep and ran my lmr240 thought it. I have traps at each end to keep the water out. Ground rods at the antenna and where the coax enters the house. Lighting arrester where the coax enters the house. It works very well. I have made contacts all over the world with this antenna. Some of the furthest are, Japan, Cyprus, and Uruguay. I live in Nebraska home of the once great Cornhuskers :( Very nice job with the installation. 73 KF0ALT
It seems we have a similar installation. It is my only antenna, so I have nothing to compare it to easily. But I’m happy with it. I’m glad you’re happy with yours too. Thanks for commenting. 73 de N2MMS.
Good approach. Radials make verticals work. I use a 4BTV and a DIY Rybakhov (non resonant vertical). I have a lot of buried wires spread over two gardens. The 4BTV and Fishing-pole (non resonant) Rybakhov are much of a muchness apart from price, but TBH my two fairly short doublets work rather better and only cost pennies each while requiring no ground/counterpoise system. Buying the 4BTV was a mistake. I only ever run QRP power levels. Scotland to Asiatic Russia, USA, Canada on just a few watts using simple wire doublets. I once went QRO, 30W to Pinetown South Africa. Build, don't buy.
Thank you Melvin I appreciate you and everything you have done. I had a problem with someone getting my package and wiped it or added malware I don't know . I got the box had to set it up and it never worked right and the cable company shut me down a few times . Melvin remoted in and tried to fix it but seen there was more to it no questions asked and said hey send me that back and I will wipe it and go thru it put all the things that should be there. I was so impressed I got the 3 yr plan that covers anything to the box it is the lest I could do. You are the MAN the TV Guy and when I did watch something when it worked it BLOW my mind thing that are in the theater that came out 2 day ago like magic Mikes last dance the best 4k video 5 stars. Miracle Box cut the cable
I put my 6btv up 15 years ago. Still works great. I think you went a little overboard with the bare grounding wire. The antenna is already grounded when you installed the pole. I just pounded a 6 foot pole in the ground, mounted my radial plate and tilt mount and set up the antenna. Been working for 15 years. No rf or static electricity ever back in shack.
You do realise that the Hustlet 4BTV is only half of an antenna/aerial system? I have 4BTV sitting over a field of buried radials, the 'other half' of the antenna. Put simply.... you can't 'push against nothing'. a six foot rod in wet clay may work.... sort of. A decent radial field will work.
I ran 32 radials, about 33 feet, just over 1,000 feet of wire on sandy soil for my 4BTV. My lawn guy won't cut one swath in line with where I buried coax in conduit with the trencher. It works great WAS and DXCC on these bands came pretty quick. Looks like all the same DXE hardware, except I don't use UNUN or that shelf. I bring the coax across that tab on the radial plate and use a coax to the bracket on the bottom of the antenna. (overkill)
Interesting. I have the 6BTV and the earlier version of the tilt mount. HOA has restrictions but they are defective, so no problem. Neighbors at the back are interested in ham radio. My challenge is ROCK. I have limestone (karst) less than a foot down. Need to put more radials down. Thanks for showing your process! AB5XZ in STX.
You can use a lawn edger if you really want to bury the radials below the surface but waiting for the lawn to heal would bring attention to the project. I know I would hurt my middle finger waving it around in protest to a HOA. Not for me . F the HOA nazis.
Very nice video. Hw did it survive the winter? How far apart are the staples? I’m afraid I would pull it up into the lawnmower. Do I need counterpoise if I have a tuner? Ic7300 internal.
I worked my first ZL on 40m cw using the BTV6. The original radial GP consisting of 8 10m wires had come away from the base some years ago. Only earth was the 3.5ft ground mast and 4tf earth rod. Unfortunately I didn't work DX on 80 or 30 but it was a great solid antenna
I Have ben a 11m guy for 35+ Years but went ham & I Stumbled on to M&P Coax & Their Evo Connectors & They Are By Far The Best I Have Ever Saw Or Used in my 35+ Years..I Run a Comet Gp-9N with 65-70ft of HYPERFLEX 10 Sahara With a Evo N Connector on one End & The Evo pl259 on the other End going to my Yaesu ft-991And According to my analyzer i only got Less than 1.5db ish of loss ! Not To Shabby At All IMHO ! !I Just Got My Hustler 5BTV Assembled & Installed Just a Fuw Days Ago (Ground Mount & NO Radials)& I Got To Say WoW What Receive They Have ! I Made Several Contacts & having a lot of Fun My SWR Is Pretty much Perfect on 20m,40m top to Bottom & 80m (Voice ) 15m is 1.4 to 1.5 & 10m is 1.5 to 1.6 So i am Still Tuning on them to a bit These Really Are a Great HF Antennas for the Money IMHO !
I acquired a DX-Engineering 6BTV. But it is damaged. It was discarded because it was missing a signal trap, and one tube link. I assembled the antenna as best I could. Even missing one trap, being unable to use another trap, and mounted on a satellite antenna bracket, the receive on the antenna is incredible. I really would love to repair it, if the traps and tubes can be purchased separately. The big positive is that the base of the antenna, the folding bracket, is complete. If anything, I can reuse the folding bracket for a different, home made, antenna.
@@jjsoundguy I have been looking for parts. The traps were numbered with the top trap being one and the bottom trap being six. I have traps 1,2,4,5,6. Trap 4 can not be installed because it is missing a pipe to mount it to the rest of the antenna in sequence. Thus, I am only using 1,2,5,6. An antique Kenwood AT-200, a small SDR showing noise and transmissions, and I can tune in just about all ranges. But, I know the resonance will be in the tuner, more than the antenna. That would effect receive significantly. I was thinking of sawing up an old lawnchair to be able to make a mount pipe for trap 4. But I would still be missing trap 3. These trap numbers were all hand written on the traps. I do not know which band each trap is designed to resonate. I may be putting more money than the antenna may be worth if I see if I can find the missing trap. I do not even know how to identify trap #3, nor any of the other traps.
My Hustler 4BTV will be delivered in about 5 days, so for me this was a great video. Thank you very much. One question: You said, "TC ground". What is TC? Regards, John
Nice job. Would you like to vacation for a weekend at my QTH and do the same thing? I’m waiting for fall and winter to start on my tower. Alabama weather and manual labor don’t mix well at 65 years old. Those are very good antennas for the price. They aren’t fantastic, but they do an excellent job for what they are. Nice job on your video work!
Looks It looks a well thought out install and I have had a 4 BTV for more years than I can remember at several locations and all on wet ground,experiences have shown me that resonant radials make a big difference but without the ground stake so all the radials insulated from ground and this made the best setup and the easiest to tune the antenna. How is the tuning when it rains very heavily 🤔
Very nice with one exception is I would put a ground rod by your antenna and lighting protection. Then I would not pull ground into your house to keep lighting out of your house. For RF 6in is too long. Otherwise nice install.
On further reflection I cannot see a huge difference between bringing in the ground wire and a coax wire or just the coax wire alone. The ground wire shown continues to the cold water feed pipe from the street. It is also copper and it is deeper and longer than my ground rods. Am I wrong here?
@@jjsoundguy For lighting having a ground rod by the antenna and terminating the coax there breaks the ground connection and gives lighting a path to ground. To go further connect all ground rods together at your house. A good reference on the subject is Grounding and Bonding by Ward Silver. The when you bring in your coax use bonding to connect your radio equipment.
@@jjsoundguy sorry but a polyphaser Wright at bottom of the antenna is the only way to go N keep ground sepert from ground at the base of the antenna for antenna ground n the polyphaser N keep ground for shack separate from coax ps don't ask how I know It brings up bad memories! 73 n good dx n9prf
I agree with bringing that ground into the house....nice path for lightning, arrestor in line or not....least resistance is through that nice clean copper wire.. But still a great job...
Very well done video. Only thing I would have done different is the ground to your pipes. Household utility pipes are not a good ground and matter of face code changed like 15+ years ago and GFCI should not be grounded to utility pipes. Loved the video and was wondering if you ever got out on 80M? I thought a lot about ground radials but will my zero turn chop them up? I was kind of surprised to see you didnt mow them up.
I didnt want to just mention the ground issue without pointing you to a fabulus video explaining the grounding. At 13:35 he discusses grounding to copper water pipes. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Luy8XP8O390.html
Thanks for the comments. I have two 8ft ground rods outside. I simply added another ground to the cold water supply since it was close. No, have not ventured onto 80 meters yes. Been busy resurrecting a Subaru Forester for a future cross country road trip. You really have to look closely for the radials. That is a point I wanted to make. I was not sure the wires would be subsumed into the grass. 73
Hi great video, now I and a local friend both went for the dxcommander that also uses ground radials..after about 9 months my friend who goes mobile a lot purchased the 17ft chameleon whip..and on experimenting day after day week after week with his chameleon in his back garden just 6ft if the ground and just 2 radials coming down at an angle the chameleon blew the dxcommander out of the water every time on reverse beacon the dxc was getting round Europe etc that is local to us .but the chameleon was blowing smoke all over the states Canada vk Japan etc absolutely no comparison so the dxc s have both gone the journey..be interesting to see how these antennas work with raised radials. I know for most people it's not possible to have wire all over ..children and pets use garden space as well ..but might try one of these antennas with raised radials myself..Great video 73 john m0asn
I have the same antenna system. The radials made all the difference in the world on my 6btv! Just watch the swr after you install more radials. It should go up as you add more ground radial wires. I ended up buying the VMN-1 from DXE to get my feedpoint impedance up to near 50 ohms once more. After that I retuned the antenna once again, and she screams! 73 es gud DX de kc5ngx
Is this considered a base loaded antenna for CB radio? It looks similar to what I had back in the early 1980's but mine was on a roof with the antenna rods sticking out the bottom. This, at the time, was considered one of the best designed antennas of its time. Thanks for showing how you did yours. Aren't you worried about rust though? All the parts are at ground level where the morning dew is, rain and snow. That would be my concern. Vandals too or an animal getting its paw caught in the wires.
It is not a base loaded antenna. The coil-like device at the base is an UN-UN transformer . it uncouples the feedline shield from the ground of the antenna. The parts near the ground are all stainless steel. Thank you for your comment. I appreciate it.
The Hustler is a very good antenna. However I use a very similar looking (clone) antenna , it's a GP4 4 band (7/14/21/29M). At the moment I have only 2 radials due to lack of space but it works better than average. It was AUD 300 shipping inclusive.
I am reading the 5-BTV install directions. It clearly says the coax or mounting bracket should not be directly grounded. But doesn’t the metal pole your antenna is mounted to do just that?
Yes I always use self amalgamating tape under the electrical tape. No HOA here as I won't have it. I would be at war with them from my first day after moving in anyway. 73 de n2mms
I'm a little confused of the number and sizes of radials. For the 6BTV, how many radials and how long do they have to be? all the same size? some longer than others? Thank you
Radials are not an exact science. The more and the longer the better. But there is a point of diminishing returns. after 16 long ones the returns become less per radial. I had a small yard so I went with more radials. 73 de N2MMS
try digging through the hard tock in my part of the USA. one has to bow to the miners digging tunnels in this stuff. central/ northern ca, USA. even the power corp had trouble installing a new gas line. (the old one was so old there was no information on location).
The blade I used pushed down well enough with my foot. Plus the pressure washer makes an awful mess. The clay starts about eight to ten inches below grade. Thanks for your comment.
Welllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll...............................................................How did it work. What was your SWR for each band.
Is that plain old pvc electrical tape over the connections to the UN-UN ? I think you would be better off using self amalgamating tape, pvc tape will fail.
80 meters is sumer narrow and such a short antenna cannot be efficient anyway. I have never made a contact on 80 meters. I usually haunt 20 and 40 meters. 73 de N2MMS
Mate good job, but looks like you have used normal electrical tape to wrap around your connection points where the coax screws onto the bottom of the antenna. No good mate, you need to use 3M Self Bonding Electrical Tape to endure a 100% water proof seal.
The Un-Un is a Palomar Engineers unit with the static discharge. I connected the discharge wire with a clip lead to experiment to see if I get any Rx signal loss. Detected no loss yet.
Glad you liked it! I am getting better at the videos. I won't put music on my videos. Most people object to music but the presenters just don't get it.
If your swr is good and you have good coax to antenna interface (I used an UN-UN transformer) then look at your take-off angle. Look horizontal from your antenna in all directions. Certain obstacles impede the Tx and Rx of the signal. Hills and buildings are examples. Also a lot of energy coming back up your coax might need to be addresses. That is why my UN-UN.
@@jjsoundguy My town sits in a hole for one thing. Back in the day of tv antennas we had to have a really good one just to get 70 miles. Swr is 1.3. Coax is 40ft new cable expert RG8X. I do have 4 ferrite clipped to the coax at antenna. Thanks
The grass recovered by itself. There are later shots two weeks and one month after the installation and I mowed the grass twice in the last shot. Thanks for the comments. 73
Yes, that is a good idea but I then would have to light the flag at night as it is proper practice that the "sun" never sets on the flag of the USA. Luckily no one has ever complained about my installation. Thank you for your comment. 73 de N2MMS
Why would you bring that unusually long ground wire from the antenna into the house like that? That is asking for RF problems! The only thing leading from the antenna into the house should be your coax! And that should have a good choke between the antenna and the coax right there at the feed point. And connect several ground radials to that radial plate under the antenna and spread out around it like spokes in a wheel. The antenna mount is grounded to the steel pipe it's mounted too, no sense in bringing that long (radiating) ground wire into the shack like that!
It is designed as a ground mounted vertical. If mounted higher off the ground the radial system becomes a nightmare. Elevated mounting with this design calls for a different grounding design altogether.
On the other hand, I am interested as the type of ground has a major impact. I also was very interested in how he did the entrance to his shack using PVC.
Do you know if this antennae would work in a terrain constrained place? I live at the bottom of a hill in relatively low ground. I'd like to reach out but just not clear on what type of antenna to use.
I am not an expert but it is a ground wave antenna. So the terrain slope might be your take-off angle. I live where it is relatively flat but luckily at the top of a small rise. Not a hill or a mountain, but a gentle rise. 73
Being relatively new to amateur radio, I have been researching antennas for quite some time now (long story). What I do know is that it "depends" on the angle from your antenna (say the base) to the top of the hills that surround you. Applying what I have learned to your brief description, start with a cheap home-brew horizontal dipole or inverted V before spending any serious money. That will give you mostly NVIS (Near Vertical Incident Skywave). which will use the ionosphere to bounce your signal to the other side of your hills. There are many hams with good RU-vid videos who will describe the radiation patterns for various antennas -- the most useful videos show plots using antenna analysis software. I suggest starting with David Casler (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-pRTo01Qttbc.html and ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-oFE142IMo-s.html) and DXcommander (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-IsOfgRLSevw.html). Good luck, and be careful not to fall down that rabbit hole though ;-)
I built up the same system and it works really good bought mine in 1978 and in that time the only repair was a 15 m trap cover. I have made contacts all over the world and have moved it 4 time and it has been a stellar performer. I also believe it is the best vertical to spend your hard earned money on.73 from ki0ad/jim
